Fate Extra : The Music of the Spheres
by celian Cogitore
Summary: And in its dark ages, even death can die... 2099, a tragic time, a world ravaged by war and where corruption reigns. As the end of the world seems imminent, a hibernation capsule containing the last Master reappears. With the awakening of Hakuno Kishinami a new Grail War begins!
1. Chapter 1

**This story is a Fanfic written by an amateur and published for non-profit purposes.**  
**I have no right to the Fate universe that belongs to Type-Moon.**  
**On the other hand, the Chtulhu Mytos is a collective work nourished by many authors (such as H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E Howard, Clark A. Smith, August Derleth, Brian Lumley or Frank B. Long). They were never opposed to others writing stories in the universe they created.**

**Back to Zero**

* * *

The _Moon Cell_ Grail War had just ended.

It was a conflict between hundreds of Spiritron Hackers, wizards able to use a particular form of magic that made it possible to project themselves into the virtual universe of a computer.

The clash had taken place inside the _Moon Cell_, also known as _Eye of God_ and the _Holy Grail_, an immemorial recording device constructed by some sort of quasi divine extraterrestrial beings. This massive collection of photonic crystal within the moon was a sort a supercomputer.

This prodigious artifact, almost as old as the planet Earth, could alter reality, make possible the impossible. For some unknown reason, it had offered its ability to grant any wish to the winner of some kind of deadly game.

After seven weeks of trials without numbers, after winning seven Masters. Hakuno Kishinami and her Caster class Servant were faced with Twice H. Pieceman, the ultimate event...

For years... maybe centuries, time not wanting to say anything in the Seraph, Twice H. Pieceman had shattered the dreams of all the Masters believing they had triumphed in the Grail War. However, despite his Servant, nothing less than Buddha himself, he had just encountered defeat. He had disappeared, letting the winner climb a long staircase leading to the Main Core.

The Main Core was a huge unfinished crystal cube, showing a sphere of golden light floating above a surface covered in water, from which emerged numerous stone pillars like some sort of funeral monuments.

The interior of the main Core was a sea of data, where infinity of 0 and 1 crossed. There was only one intruder in the system, a body sinking into the depths of this digital sea. She was an I.A. with corrupted data that the Moon Cell's defense programs were slowly deconstructing. Her body was crumbling in violet particles; her mind sank, gradually obliterated.

She was a teenager girl with long wavy brown hair and eyes, dressed in the brown female School Uniform of Tsukumihara Academy over a black turtleneck and black pantyhose. She looked very plain with a lack of expressive features... some sort of background character easily forgotten.

Her name was Hakuno Kishinami. Created by the Moon Cell as an N.P.C. in the tournament of death known as the Holy Grail War, she had reached consciousness. Seeking to escape the Seraph, the virtual universe where the fighting took place, Hakuno summoned Tamamo No Mae, the fox-woman. Forced to fight like one of the Masters participating in the event she had won...

It was a miracle...

Yet the endearing story of an A.I. discovering consciousness and overcoming a thousand difficulties to confront her creator ended without happy end. For the Moon Cell, the winner of the Holy Grail War was nothing but corrupt data that it was finishing erasing.

As the girl's consciousness dissolved, one last thought stay afloat, the regret of being a digital copy of a human living on Earth. Hakuno would have wanted to be this original... the sky... the birds... she would have wanted to live and see all this...

A tear rolled on her cheek before she completely collapsed into purple particles which in turn disappeared.

* * *

Earth, fifty-nine years after the events of Fate/ Extra.

In the dirty water of Tokyo Bay, the cargo ships gnashed on their anchors. Lit by the electric fire of the holographic advertisements and the sky-car fires in the sky of the Akihabara district, the docks were asleep. The windows of office buildings, obscured by filth, resounded only from the spit that oiled the streets and the cracked concrete. Suddenly, the noise of a vehicle on an air cushion deceived the night silence. Headlights turned around in an alley, reflecting on the blind windows of a dirty and decayed warehouse. Papers rose up in its path and men appeared from the silent darkness.

It was a beautiful hover-limousine, completely displaced in this environment. There was a brief dialogue with the driver. Then the mechanical shutter of the hangar lifted up to allow it to enter. The vehicle stopped so that the passenger door opened at the beginning of a red carpet.

\- Welcome, Katsuki-san.

The Japanese who had just spoken wore a strict dark suit with discreet elegance. Taking three steps forward, he bowed to the character that was getting out of the car. The hair white as snow and the face crossed with wrinkles as deep as scars, he replied with a brief nod barely accentuated enough not to be insulting. In fact, his eyes were riveted with a nervousness controlled on the interior wall that cut the hangar in half.  
\- I'm late, Hitoshi-san.

\- We wouldn't have started without you. Besides, only the… the main topic interests you?

The old man nodded briefly. He continued to fix the pearl curtain. Beyond that, you could hear the sounds of subdued voices and the sour traditional music.

Bowing again, the man named Hitoshi hastened to open the road.

It looked like a private club. A scene produced for the hour four women in _furisode_ playing bamboo flutes and _samishen_. A triple circle of tables welcomed gray hair men. They were all accompanied by hostesses in pink blouses with an American name stapled to their chest. Many of these grave characters bowed deeply to the passing of the newcomer.

Everyone knew each other. There were members of the Diet, owners of large companies and even a minister in office. Arriving at a vacant place, Katsuki-san stopped without looking at the so-called «Chrystal» who was waiting for him at the table.

\- She can go back.

The girl sixteen years old at the most, rose and bowed before leaving.

\- You want something to drink, Katsuki -san?

\- Sake!

The very select club secretly set up in the city's docks was a kind of very specialized auction hotel. Only members of high society could belong to the club. Of course, we should not ask questions about the origin of the objects offered for sale. Some came from illegal searches carried out by treasure hunters, others were stolen from museums.

* * *

Over the last hundred and thirty years, the world had slowly disintegrated. By 1970, a catastrophe had caused the tilting of the Earth's axis and a plethora of consequences had resulted: tidal surges, earthquakes, volcanic eruption, epidemics, wars...

Most men did not know this, but it had caused the death of the supreme entities called _Gaia_ (the will of the world) and _Alaya_ (the collective spirit of men). Without _Gaia_, the _mana_, the magical energy that fed the ritual magic (or _Formalcraf_) had disappeared.

The _Clocktower_, the organization that brought together the _Magi_, did not survive such a brutal change in the environment.  
The _Magi_ using Magic Circuits to influence the real world disappeared almost completely in a few decades... They were replaced by the _Wizards_ or _Spiritron Hackers_, users of a particular _Magecraft_ allowing to interact with computers, or even to project themselves within the digital universe.

In this context, around 2030, the _Moon Cell_ was discovered on the Moon and the Holy Grail Wars began.  
However, a few years later the Spiritron Hackers could no longer connect with the Holy Grail... as a result of Hakuno Kishinami's wish. The latter- before being erased - had wished that these bloody wars would disappear and that no one would have to die for a wish.

The only wish to have never been fulfilled by the Moon Cell was therefore that there is no more Holy Grail to fulfill the wishes of a dying planet...

Cruel irony, the best of intentions had guided Hakuno. She might have wanted to escape the erasure inside the Moon Cell... At this selfish vow, the victor of the Grail War preferred to sacrifice herself in order to prevent other people from suffering. The result could not have been more opposed to this generous gesture. In fact, Hakuno had closed the last exit door that would have allowed Earth to escape the disasters that followed in the following years.

Almost sixty years and two world wars later, the world was plagued by chaos. The collapse of the European Plutocracy and the Harwey Empire, at the end of the Third World War, had made it possible to revive scientific research and certainly avoid the worst.

However, the world that had emerged from confrontation was permanently divided and the plans for world unification relegated to dangerous utopias. The states disintegrated in favor of increasingly powerful multinationals. While the fortunes of a handful reached their heights, misery was the common lot of the rest of humanity.

Twice H. Pieceman had prevented the Masters reaching the Main Core of the Moon Cell from fulfilling their wishes because he wanted the advent of a world advocating the survival of the most capable. Twice would have loved what Hakuno Kishinami's wish had unintentionally spawned, a noxious universe where money remained the only power and where all fought to obtain it.

* * *

Around the hangar serving as a secret sales hotel, some yakuza made a quiet round. After all, the protection of the place came mainly from the "friendships" which the owner of the "club" maintained with the powerful of the country.

In this world where religion, magic and states were little more than windbag, there remained few people of integrity...  
However, if the Yakuza had looked up on the nearby roof, they would have seen stealth silhouettes. More than a dozen men took positions. They wear some sort of black cotton jumpsuit with high-tech composite chest places, guards for the shoulder, elbow and knees. The helmet, with a short antenna on the side and a breather, was made of the same composite material. They were armed with sniper rifles, stun guns and assault rifles.  
The armor markings were in Japanese and English: "S.W.A.T." and "Tokyo Police Department"

* * *

Inside the hangar, the first items (works of art from all over the world) were purchased at a fast pace. The auction hardly lasted. Most of the buyers reserved for the "main event".

After a brief musical interlude, a young man with a brilliant smile appeared before the microphone:

\- _Konban wa_ (good evening), generous patrons of our humble club. I hope you had a good evening so far and I thank you for your patience. Because, I know, you're all waiting for the highlight of this evening.

Turning to the side, the presenter with the gummy hair made a gesture and the curtain closing the scene opened revealing an oval capsule nearly two meters long made of metal and white plastic chipped by time. The upper part was made of glass or some sort of transparent Plexiglas covered with frost. On the central part was a small control panel with green lights.

The capsule - mounted on a cart- was connected by various cables or pipes to a set of machines, in particular a portable generator.

\- As you learned by registering, the jewel of this evening is absolutely unique. It is an intact hibernation sarcophagus. One of our diligent teams, traveling the world to find wonders that meet the tastes of our respectable clientele, discovered it right here, in Tokyo, in the ruins of a hospital looted and burned during the riots that marked the beginning of the Third World War.

Taking a few steps, the presenter switched on an archaic computer. The 2D screen showed the face of a teenager in school uniform.

\- Miraculously, a sixteen-year-old girl spent the last six decades sleeping like the Sleeping Beauty of fairy tales. She was put in hibernation because victim of Amnesia Syndrome, an infectious disease identified in the 21st century. It is a virus that violates nerves in the brain. Those infected with this disease gradually lose awareness of the boundary line between themselves and other people. Ultimately they lose all awareness of their memories and it ends their lives. Thankfully, in 2030 a vaccine was developed.

The gummed presenter turned around in front of the captivated crowd:

\- Of course, dear patron, the ultimate destiny of this young girl rests in your hands... or rather in the hands of only one of you, the one who will win the auction.

As the presenter revealed a screen with a large amount of money, several hands rose to outbid. Prices were rising very fast...

* * *

One of the yakuza members making his rounds outside came to a halt. Like many of this futuristic Japan's henchmen, he was addicted to cybernetic or bionic implants. In particular, his eyes had been replaced by multioptic-eyes, implants capable of seeing under different spectra from infrared to ultraviolet or thermal vision.  
Swearing, he fired a heavy gun from under his jacket.

\- Cops!

There was a shot and he flipped on himself... his arm swept away by a high-caliber bullet! The police had just begun their intervention:

\- Tokyo Police! In accordance with article 469.9 of the law of 11 August 2058, please consider yourself under arrest. Anything you say will be used against you. You have no right to ask for a lawyer or a doctor. You have no right to remain silent. Surrender without resistance. Police officers have the right to use force, including lethal force, to compel recalcitrants!

The call fell from a loudspeaker on the spot the yakuza. Any desire to resist was taken away from them by the arrival of power-armors. The assisted armor fell from the sky, carried by their short wings and heavy thrusters on their backs. Their general appearance was reminiscent of samurais with a helmet adorned with metal blades. However, they held in their right hand a kind of big-gun powered by cable from a generator... a plasma gun!  
With a weapon like that, you could destroy a tank with one shot... so a thug just armed with a pistol, let's not talk about it! Without trying to play hero, the yakuza raised their arms and allowed themselves to be disarmed by S.W.A.T.'s agents.

The arrival of the power-armors inside the "club" caused a real commotion. While some of the guests were paling with fear, others rose - sure of their right- to protest:

\- That is unspeakable!

\- What a right you had in a private evening?!

\- Do you know who I am?

\- Who is in charge? I ask to speak to the person in charge!

Without listening to the cacophony of voices, the police spread among the tables, leaving business lawyers, corrupt politicians, and the directors of megacorporations against the walls to handcuff them.

Two plainclothes policemen, 30-year-old Japanese, crossed the main hall to climb the few steps leading up to the stage.

The presenter, guarded by a member of the S.W.A.T. looked furiously at them:

\- How dare you? What gives you the right to interfere in private property?

Inspector Minamoto Sezuku pulled his badge out of his jacket:

\- This, sir, as well as a number of articles of law. In particular those relating to the possession and sale of stole objects, the association of criminals. I could add that this space has not been declared and that it does not meet fire safety standards. But more importantly, the law doesn't allow the sale of human beings. You've probably gone too far...

Inspector Asano Mihei had been stationed near the old computer:

\- What archaism... There is not even a data-jack port. How do we access the data?

\- Try tapping the keyboard!

\- Yeah... I would have guessed myself.

\- Then why ask the question?

\- Just to complain, Sezuku-san.

Minamoto Sezuku approached the sarcophagus and used his sleeve to chase the frost that covered the translucent part. He discovered a motionless, bloodless face surrounded by a fringe of brown hair.  
Asano Mihei had stopped swearing by trying to understand how the computer works, and smiled when he saw that he had managed to open a file containing the prisoner's personal data from the capsule:

\- Her name is Hakuno Kishinami. Born in 1990, cryogenic hibernation dive in 2006... 93 years ago! Secondary school student at the Tsukumihara Academy in Fuyuki, Oita Prefecture, Kyushu. Her parents died in a fire in 2004. Known family: an older brother, born in 1988...

Minamoto cut off his colleague:

\- Irrelevant, he must have been dead for decades.

* * *

Tokyo Teishin Hospital

The large flat building covered with brown roughcast was surrounded by a park comprising many trees, especially Sakura, the famous cherry trees of Japan. In the spring, their pink petals brightened up the essentially utilitarian building that stood in the heart of the titanic mega-city that stood at the foot of Mount Fuji.  
Dr Sakamoto was one of the few Japanese practitioners to have some knowledge of cryogenic hibernation. The process, abandoned some seventy years earlier, was only mentioned in a few specialized journals.

Tired, the old man went out of the operating room requisitioned to get to the coffee machine. Yawning, he then walked towards the policeman asleep on a bench and shook him:

\- Inspector Minamoto?

The man growled and pounded his eyelids before rising to sigh:

\- Doctor?

\- Have you been here all night? I am surprised at your dedication.

\- Nobody waits for me but a cat. How is the girl?

The doctor nodded:

\- I am amazed. Its state of preservation is miraculous... in fact, I should rather say that it is miraculous that the hibernation sarcophagus remained intact after more than 60 years without maintenance! Kishinami-san has perfectly supported the resuscitation and injection of the anti-virus. She is out of danger, however...

\- Yes?

The doctor hesitated for a moment:

\- I have found several anomalies.

\- Any abnormalities, Doctor?

\- Yes, in the first place the electroencephalogram of Kishinami-san is out of the norm. I have never encountered brain activity of this order...

The policeman frowned.

\- What do you mean? An effect of Amnesia Syndrome?

\- I doubt it... Kishinami-san's brain seems to be working fast. For now, she's still in a coma on artificial respiration and heart stimulation, so it's hard to tell what that means. I'll have to run some tests when she wakes up.

Doctor Sakamoto stood up, took a few steps before turning around and touching his forehead:

\- Oh, I almost forgot. By washing the cryogenic fluid on her skin I noticed a tattoo on her hand.

\- A tattoo?

\- Do you have a data jack?

Minamoto showed a hidden entrance port behind his ear, taking a secure cable the doctor connected to the policeman to exchange data.

Minamoto Sezuku saw the image of Hakuno Kishinami's left hand appear under her eyelids. A nearly erased brown mark was on her back... one might think of a scar. Nevertheless, she had a regular appearance. A kind of tormented fleur-de-lys, like one of those "tribal" tattoos fashioned decades ago.

The policeman secured the image in his neural chip and then opened his eyes:

\- That may or may not be important. Hard to say. Take care of her, Doctor. I'll come back when she wakes up.

Sakamoto smiles :

\- I have ordered that Kishinami-san be placed in intensive care. I will have you notified when she wakes up.

* * *

The night had been particularly difficult for Inspector Minamoto Sezuku. The abuse of coffee gave him the impression that his stomach had turned into a bag of acid. Most of his colleagues preferred tea and used ginseng roots to keep the tone when they had to watch.

Ever since he was in the States, he's been sticking to coffee. A dirty habit gained during too long interrogations in this crisis P.C. that the federal department multiplied by following the track of the Serials Killers.  
Sloping into one of the damp and warm streets of the capital, the policeman gained a back door. Like all real Tokyo townspeople, his ability to find himself in this maze was genius. It was oriented only by taking into account the large buildings of more than two hundred stores that cut across the grist of the city centre. These were the only landmarks in the capital. Rising from its ruins, in the aftermath of the Fourth World War, Tokyo had been rebuilt without an overall plan or street name. Minamoto skirted a palisade behind which was activated giant robots building a building but barely noticed them. Passing under one of the countless elevated roadways, he left the street for a narrower passage. Then he stopped, frozen by surprise...

A nine-year-old boy, carrying a heavy bag, blocked the sidewalk. For a moment, the little man and Minamoto yellowed without moving. It would have been difficult to say who was most affected. Was it the toddler in school uniform or the adult in his suit, roughed up by the moisture, his hair too long and sticky?  
They did not sketch a movement of recognition although they were something other than strangers... once, in another life...

The strangely intense gaze, the child crossed the road not to approach the man. He entered a residence and disappeared in the direction of a garden. Regretfully, the adult turned to reach the staircase from where the apparition had arisen. The policeman knocked on the door of a second floor apartment, No one answered. Disillusioned, Minamoto took a quick look at his watch. He was on time.

From the parking lot, a warning call made him turn around. Leaning over the railing, he looked at a motorcycle that was parked below. The rider disengaged with flexibility, his steed perfectly dominated, and stopped just at the foot of the building.

\- Sorry to be late, wait for me. I'm going up.

Leaning his mechanical steed on his crutch, the individual in jeans and leather jacket cut the gas. As soon as he had set foot on the ground, he rushed into the hall. And when he arrived on the landing, without worrying about the officer's awkward air, he immediately rushed into his arms.

\- You could at least take off your helmet.

Bursting with laughter, the rider obeyed, dropping a stream of ebony-colored hair on her shoulders. The thick and stiff wicks like wood shavings loosely embraced a ravishing doll face of porcelain whiteness. Her eyes, which the Westerners would say «bridled», formed two huge ellipses as if drawn between a tiny nose and temples underlined by an imperceptible hint of wrinkles. More calmly, she held out her cheek so that he kissed her.

\- You look tired, Sezuku-kun.

\- And you in great shape. What's new?

\- Oh?! Not much. In the newspaper we only talk about murders. On the family side, things are going pretty well. Your son just went back to school.

With a tight heart, Minamoto bowed left.

\- I saw ihim… on the way.

The smile of the young woman disappeared instantly.

\- He's often late. You know it's not easy between works and … It may be even harder for him. Well, I won't keep you waiting in the hallway, it must be cooler inside.

The inspector nodded to show he understood.

The young woman opened the door. She spoke without ceasing, getting her ex-husband drunk with a heap of words without consequence: The off-season climate, global warming and the melting of the ice which threatened the polders on which the new neighborhoods were built. Nothing personal, it sounded like she was trying to keep his mouth shut. The interior of the apartment was rather cramped, a little less than nine _tatami_, or thirteen square meters according to western measures. The living room filled with shelves revolved around a _kotasu_, an end table burned up by an infrared lamp. Three sliding PVC doors imitated traditional _shoji _rice paper. They opened onto the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. The view from the windows did not catch up. It even left something to be desired. It was only an alignment of bleak, dull concrete buildings, intertwined with the airways under which Minamoto passed on the way. The only free spaces were a bus station and a small park.

What better hope for ninety thousand Yens?

As her guest sat in front of the home, the young woman hastened to prepare tea in the kitchen.

\- What about your investigation?

\- We have saved a one hundred and nine year old teenager girl, Tomoko.

The woman named Tomoko freeze.

\- I beg your pardon?

The police inspector summed up his night, the discovery of the clandestine sale of a hibernation tank and the adolescent girl who had been sleeping for almost a century.

His ex-wife who was activating in the kitchen came back with a tray loaded with a narrow teapot and two cups as outputs of a doll service. When she returned, Minamoto was turned to the altar of the house, lighting an incense stick.

Tomoko graciously laid down her charge and took her seat in front of her guest. Getting down on one's knees was difficult.

\- Jeans are practical. But I believe they are the very symbol of the difficulty of Japanese has in reconciling uses with modern life.

\- No doubt.

The detective pulled a bunch of pictures out of his pocket and put them in front of the reporter.

\- Can you talk to me about that?

Without protesting, Tomoko dragged the pictures to her place. She looked at the pictures one after the other. The journalist was no longer smiling and her tension was evident from the stiffness of her shoulders. Hakuno Kishinami was seen on her hospital bed, connected to all the machines that made her breathe and gradually brought her back to life. She then stared at a photo showing the partially erased tattoo. On Tomoko's arms, the Magic Circuits activated, transforming the _od_ into _Prana_ as she appealed to her gift. The vision overwhelmed her:

_The Seven Chimeric Lunar Seas..._

_Moon Cell Grail War..._

Vision of a fox-woman... A fleet of ships caught in the storm... A man dressed in green and wearing a crossbow on his wrist... A little girl wearing a nineteenth-century dress... A tyrant in the middle of a forest of impaled victims... an assassin who doesn't need to strike a second blow... A crazy Chinese antique general armed with a large halberd... a knight in armor carrying a blade containing the sun itself...

And above all... Buddha himself...

_Hakuno Kishinami Victor of the Moon Cell..._

_The Last Master..._

And...  
The vision of a giant crystal cube... a cube containing... the vision distorts as Tomoko held her head with two hands submerged by a stream of contradictory data... a digital ocean containing all the knowledge of thousands of parallel universes...

\- Tomoko!

She waved a trembling hand to repel her ex-husband.

\- I'm fine... the vision was just too intense. _Kami-sama_... who is this girl?

Repelling the photographs, the journalist swallowed her saliva while waiting for the inspector's questions.

\- What did you see?

She burst out with a bitter laugh.

\- I saw... but I didn't understand, Sezuku. Have you ever heard of the Grail Wars?

\- I am not a Magus and without you I would know nothing about your world. After all, by your own admission, there are practically no more _Magi_... and hardly any _Wizards_.

\- It was a conflict between seven Magi called "Masters" through heroic spirits called "Servants".

\- Heroic Spirits?

\- Ghosts of past heroes who receive a temporary body made up of _prana_.

Minamoto Sezuku looked at his ex-wife with a strange expression:

\- Are you telling me that Hakuno Kishinami is a Master?

\- Correct, the "tattoo" is a Command Spell... inactive.

\- Excuse me, Tomoko... but I thought you had explained to me that this kind of ritual requires a form of magical energy - the _mana_\- that no longer exists on Earth.

\- It still exists on the Moon. Kishinami-san participated... no, she won the Moon Cell Grail War.

The young woman explained at length what the photonic crystal supercomputer on the moon was. Then, finding that the beverage had infused enough, Tomoko turned away from the conversation with the officer. With graceful gestures, she began the tea ceremony or _sado_.

* * *

Tokyo Teishin Hospital

On the hand of a teenager plunged into a coma, an almost erased tattoo began to pulsate, shedding a faint red glow.

* * *

Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture

The famous _Sessho-seki_ or "killer stone" was a huge block of black rock girded with a rope where white papers were hung. A wooden pavement allowed visitors to walk around the stone. There were also thousands of statues of _Jizou_ supposed to contain the power of the evil rock. That morning, tourists who came to visit the site of Tamamo no Mae's death saw the stone that was in fact the petrified remains of the _Kitsune_ begin to vibrate.  
Some of them even heard a sigh:

\- Finally, _otto-sama_...

* * *

**Author Note: A new story for Hakuno Kishinami. This time she is immersed in a hopeless world, a world where all moral values have collapsed and where the appetite for power alone guides men... and as Lovecraft so aptly put it, the Old Ones will return to Earth when humanity resembles them... free from all morality.**

**Important: I search a Beta rRader. **


	2. Chapter 2 Awakening

**sakaewamatsui: ****Interesting question, but I'd rather not answer it here. I'll let you find the answer in the rest of the story.**

**Akasha Bloodriver: ****The situation is indeed very ironic. But Hakuno will (hopefully) solve all the problems.**

**Fate/Extra is very vague about the dates of the various events. The only date given other than approximately is the discovery of the Moon Cell in 2030. Now, the chronology I have established is purely speculative. I don't pretend it's right in Fate/Extra.**

**For Hakuno's brother, I have no plans to involve him or its descendants.**

**Yes, you're right the digital Hakuno and the physical Hakuno have been merged. The idea came to me when I saw the end of Fate/Extra, when the Moon Cell tried to connect the two... and failed. I thought, "What if the Moon Cell had succeeded?"**

**All sleeping Beauty has a Charming Prince. And Hakuno's is... a tired coffee's intoxicated cop sleeping in his wrinkled clothes. Where's Sir Gawain when you need him?**

**The Magecraft still exists in 2099... only... without the Clocktower (and all the teaching it offers to students), without access to the _Mana_... the last Magi are only a shadow of what they were a century earlier. We will have the opportunity to talk about it again, but the Magi have lost all hope of seeing their dream of reaching the Roots. But the world of Fate Extra/ Music of the Spheres is basically a desperate universe with no future... the Magi are not the only ones to live without real perspectives. Yes, this Tamamo knows Hakuno and it's strange... but is it really stranger than the merging of the two Hakuno? Maybe "something" intervened for this result... let's take a random guess... maybe some sort of giant computer made of photonic crystals?**

**Thank you for your enthusiasm; it is the real reward of every author.**

**sawtooth44 : thank for the correction.**

* * *

**Awakening**

* * *

Tokyo Teishin Hospital

When we talk about cryogenic hibernation, we think of a kind of long sleep in ice.

This is doubly misleading. First, a cryogenic individual does not sleep, he is **DEAD**. Then keeping it in water ice would lead to the formation of ice crystals inside the cells, destroying them. In a cryogenic chamber, the body is stored in a very low-temperature liquid that is also present in all cavities, such as the lungs. This fluid also replaces the blood in the veins.

The first phase of Kishinami Hakuno's resurrection was therefore to remove the body from the preservative fluid and drain it from her body before refilling her veins with blood.

Once this was done, the medical team went through a great moment of anguish. Were they going to be able to restart the body? They only had a few minutes before the brain suffered irreversible damage. Fortunately, Hakuno was only sixteen years old and her youth increased the chances of a return to life without sequelae.

In fact, everything went well, wonderfully well. The team was competent, but especially Hakuno's reactions from the first stimulation.

* * *

Yamada Kaori was a young 23-year-old nurse. In her uniform of a tender rose, the hair caught in the headdress of her function, she looked like an angel.

Sitting next to his patient's bed, Kaori followed the monitors with her eyes, but relied mainly on the colors that had returned to the adolescent's face. Four hours earlier, when the nurse came to sit by the bed, Kishinami Hakuno looked like an alabaster statue.

The heart always needed support and breathing had to be assisted, but every hour that passed brought Kishinami-san closer to awakening.

Hearing the door open, Kaori turned to see Dr. Sakamoto and Dr. Onaba enter.

\- How is our little patient?

The nurse took a tender look at the teenager who had started coughing, embarrassed by the oxygen supply tube sinking deep into her throat:

\- As you can see, her reflexes are coming back. I think she won't need all this equipment in a few hours.

Dr. Onaba had listened with a distracted ear. Despite his advanced age, he was a recognized specialist in the field of neurology. His eyes were fixed on an electroencephalogram:

\- Unbelievable!

Dr. Sakamoto turned to his colleague:

\- I understand your enthusiasm. What do you think?

\- Never... In my forty-two years in the business, I've never seen anything like this.

Onaba approached the computer, projecting a 3D representation of Hakuno's brain above her bed.

The brain hologram appeared tinted with false colors.

\- Kishinami-san is still in a coma, yet her brain activity is already mobilizing nearly 7% of neurons... as much as a man in full intellectual activity!

Sakamoto, who was not a specialist, frowned:

\- You mean awake...

\- ... she would use much more. Did you know that Einstein used 9% of his brain? So far it's the man with the highest brain activity. I think Kishinami is going to break that record.

In disbelief, Sakamoto shook his head. What Onaba said almost frightened him. Mechanically, he went through the patient's medical records, extracted from the computer of the hibernation chamber.

\- However, the only brain abnormality mentioned is the damage to the CTSB gene (1) due to Amnesia Syndrome.

Sakamoto hesitated. His hypothesis seemed silly to him, but it was the only one that came to mind:

\- Could the memory restoration therapy be the cause of this upheaval?

Doctor Onaba shrugged his shoulders:

\- Absurd... we have never seen anything like this, and the drug has been around for almost 60 years.

The brain specialist showed several areas of Hakuno's brain:

\- Look at the occiput; this is the primary visual area. The areas of the parietal and temporal lobes that are next to each other show little activity in you and me. But, in Kishinami-san, they are stimulated in an incredible way. And there, you see, in the middle of the brain... it's the sensory zone and the primary sensory association zone... what an activity! And her eyes are closed... Kishinami-san is not even conscious!

* * *

Central police station, Tokyo

A police officer rarely worked on a single case. In fact, most often, he had to juggle several investigations. The discovery of the Underground Sales Hotel and its illegal antique trade network... including a cryogenic teenage girl... was not Minamoto Sezuku's priority.

Thanks to his datajack, Minamoto Sezuku scrolled on her monitor a succession of photos worthy of a horror film, children... or rather their remains after a ceremony created by a crazy fan of dark magic. In the past, the Clocktower would have intervened to cover up the affair and to eliminate the lunatic who threatened to reveal to all the existence of the _Magecraft_. But that organization had disappeared. There were only ordinary police officers left to oppose these types of lunatics. Finally, people like him and a handful of _Magi_ still believing they have a responsibility to the world. It was during an investigation of this kind that Sezuku had met Tomoko... almost fifteen years earlier now.

Inspector Asano Mihei sat at the edge of Minamoto Sezuku's office without waiting for an invitation. The latter turned his eyes away from the screen of his computer and thanked with a smile the cup of tea that handed him.

\- If I were you, I would drink it quickly because I have the impression that the boss will call you in five minutes.

Sezuku winced as his gaze rolled up the aisle between the posts of his busy colleagues. The policeman picked up his jacket from the back of his seat.

\- Drink it yourself!

Asano turned around and saw that the door of the chief commissioner's office had just opened. Passing the head in the frame, a bald colossus with a bulldog face called Minamoto.

Tomoko's former husband greeted his superior and remained steadfastly upright as his leader returned to his chair. Commissioner Tokuyama explained himself without frills on his summons. The investigation into the murders of children in and around Tokyo was not progressing. The justice minister had called the police super-steward to ring the bells. And he did not take the trouble to find out for a long time which subordinates to return the favor. Quarrels always follow the reverse order of the hierarchy. In a mood gesture, the fat man struck the desk with a flat hand:

\- You are incapable! And because of you, I seem just as incapable!

\- Believe that we are doing our best, Commissioner Tokuyama.

\- Well, your best isn't enough. I thought the presence of a profiling genius like you was supposed to allow us to track down serial criminals.

\- When they kill with their own hands, no doubt. A profiler uses the material elements identified by forensic medicine. As well as elements brought by our colleagues on the investigation team to extrapolate the psychological portrait of the criminal. Our client kills by proxy and his instruments commit suicide once their task is done. All accumulated items refer only to operators.

This was the strangest element of this investigation... and the most incomprehensible to police officers who knew nothing of the supernatural. According to Tomoko, the real master of ritual hypnotized innocent people to perform the ritual in his place... For over a year, before every full moon, Tokyo faced a wave of child abductions. Then they were sacrificed, except the ritual failed every time, causing the death of the sacrificer.

The voice of his superior tore Sezuku from his thoughts:

-I thought the mode of operation could help us understand how it works.

The inspector bowed respectfully:

\- You are right, Commissioner. I am not a magician. What I understood is in my report. Even if my work is below what you are entitled to expect, it would be an effect of your kindness to remind you that our collaborators are also trampling.

The police commissioner let himself go back, suddenly depressed:

\- What do you propose, Sezuku-san?

The inspector shrugged his shoulders:

\- We must continue to investigate the occult. Identifying the ritual of the murders would be most useful.

\- I did not wait for you to take this step. But apart from the fact that the police are not used to operating in this environment, all the informants who had promised us news ended up bringing us distressing banalities or were found floating in the waters of the bay.

\- Are they disfigured?

The Commissioner approved with a gesture and Sezuku began to think:

\- It is already a track. It looks too much like the Yakusa method!

\- Of course, but can I afford to attack a family?

\- Is that why you kept this information from us?

\- At the moment, with the elections close by, members of the Diet are waiting for their "friends" to pay a small deposit for their election campaign. "Someone" made me understand that they would appreciate my discretion.

The last word drew a crooked smile to Minamoto. The world of politics had arrived at the last state of decomposition. Most politicians were former business lawyers who worked for the powerful megacorporations that were the real leaders of the country. Politicians were elected through media campaigns orchestrated by these same megacorporations. In return, once in power, they "relaxed" the laws and regulations on behalf of their former leaders, who were no longer content to run large legal enterprises for a long time. Through compromises with organized crime, it had become difficult to differentiate between large criminal families and megacorporations. When lawyers, press campaigns and hacker attacks were not enough to deter the few to still oppose them, the big international trusts did not hesitate to use professionals of crime. In Japan, the great families of Yakusa were the privileged partners of these megacorporations.

Commissioner Tokuyama seemed to understand his subordinate's doubts:

\- Don't look at me like that. I agree with you, otherwise I won't talk about it. But what do you want me to do? I risk my place... or worse, my head, if I insist.

Sezuku sighed:

\- Okay, Tokuyama-san, I understand. Can you at least teach me something... even unofficially?

\- We caught a small employee of a Yakuza family. Since he was working for himself and without the permission of his oyabun (2), he could not ask for his protection. To avoid rotting in cell for the next twenty years, he told us about a very, but then very private club, reserved for the elite of the country. Prostitution; clandestine betting; obscene shows or gladiators fighting anything is possible, just a matter of price. Of course, with the people who show up, we're not allowed to take a look at it.

Writing a few lines on a piece of paper, Tokuyama handed it to the inspector. This is the address of an abandoned hangar on the docks. Again, the docks, as in the underground sale hotel... If that happened, it was more than a coincidence?

\- What does this have to do with our case?

\- Our friend gave us a list of customers and all our executors were part of it. Even more disturbing, the club meets at the full moon. You know what to do?

\- I would be «by chance» on the docks at the next full moon, replied Sezuku.

\- Officially, I didn't tell you! Okay?

\- Commissioner, I do not know what you are talking about.

\- Well, keep that attitude and chances are our next assignment isn't the smallest and coldest village north of Hokkaido.

Minamoto Sezuku sighed... and yet an assignment north of Hokkaido would probably be an act of gentleness. They could also be found floating in Tokyo Bay. Being an honest cop in a corrupt country and an amoral time was a high-risk sport.

* * *

Tokyo Teishin Hospital

The first time Nurse Yamada Kaori saw the mark on her patient's hand, she thought it was a hallucination. Kishinami-san had groaned in her sleep and her caregiver had risen to examine her. She had then seen from the corner of her eye, the kind of tattoo on her hand glowing with a red glow before extinguishing.

Probably an effect of her imagination... yes, the tiredness of too many sleepless nights... yes, that must have been it.

In spite of this real melody of reassuring remarks that the nurse was lavishing on herself, the event had shaken her. It was seriously starting to do too many abnormal things.

Who was Kishinami Hakuno?

Kaori had heard everything Dr. Onaba had said about her cerebral frequency and the strange conditions that had allowed the teenage girl to get to them.

Kaori's mother was a practicing Buddhist. A few years earlier, while discussing prolonged coma cases, her mother had given her impressions. As a believer, she thought a body in a coma was a soulless body. After several years, the soul departed reincarnated and the body could no longer be awakened.

It was nothing scientific, but now it impressed Kaori a lot.

What if Kishinami-san's soul never found her body because a century after her hibernation she had already reincarnated? Perhaps this explained the strange brain activity! Because the soul that occupied the body was not the one that was originally there...

Kaori shivered.

It was so absurd...

Her mother had put ridiculous ideas in her head. And even if she was right, it did not mean that an outerspace entity was in the body of Kishinami-san. Body, mind and soul were one. Only a soul identical to that of Kishinami-san could occupy her body. And there could not exist two Kishinami...

The reasoning was perfect, except that Yamada Kaori had never heard of the Seraph's N.P.C... digital copies of the soul and spirit of living humans.

* * *

Hakuno was dreaming...

It was not a pleasant dream. She relived scattered and often terrifying pieces of the seven weeks spent in the Seraph. The Holy Grail War of the Moon Cell combined the trying trials. Vlad Dracul pursuing her in the Seraph aquatic maze... Jullius B. Harwey seeking to assassinate her... the forest that stole the names created by Alice... Her Servant mortally wounded by Li Shuwen dragging herself into the corridors of another level of the Chimeric Lunar Seas... the final fight against Jullius in an arena plunged into a _Reality Marble_ of pure hatred...

Seven weeks of fighting and pain for what?

Hakuno relinquished her death, literally digested by the anti-virus programs of Moon Cell Core.

Poor digital doll, born of a "father" unable to love and who destroyed her when she found it... destroyed because she failed.

Her human consciousness, what was taking her out of the N.P.C. crowd at the Tsukumihara Academy, made her a litter just good to be thrown in the garbage.

Did she deserve anything else?

Throughout her seven short weeks of life, she had defended herself against the other Masters... and killed them so as not to be killed. Not having a choice made only a poor excuse. What had they done to deserve death? Shinji Matou was just an eight-year-old thinking he was playing a video game. Dan Blackmore, this old knight, only wanted to see the smile of his dead wife again. Alice, a Spiritron-ghost, only wanted to make friends. Jullius was a loving brother willing to sacrifice everything to protect Leo. Leonard B. Harway, the former's half-brother, was a young king who wanted to save the world.

Hakuno could live with the idea of killing Run Ru and Twice H. Pieceman. The first was a cannibal psychopath. As for the second, he wanted to plunge humanity into a permanent war to force it to evolve.

But how could she accept killing Rani VIII? Rani accepted her even though she was not human... and what did she do in return? She killed her...

Immersed in a mixture of self-loathing and self-pity, Hakuno contorted on her hospital bed, with her forehead covered in sweat.

For several hours now, she no longer needed artificial assistance, breathing on her own.

On her hand, once again, the Command Spell radiated red light. The pain passed through the adolescent's Magic Circuits, beating her nerves.

It awakened Hakuno...

After a sleep of fifty-nine years, the Last Master opened his eyes.

* * *

The Master's first instinct was to shake her painful hand against her chest, but something was bothering her. Raising her eyes, she discovered the plastic bag of an infusion suspended above her and connected to her arm by a long flexible tube.

\- Good day.

Hakuno blinked, blinded by the light. She saw a young woman dressed as a nurse. This one smiled at her with a somewhat worried look:

\- Do you understand what I'm saying?

Hakuno nodded and closed her eyes.

\- Keep your eyes open, you need to get used to the light.

\- I... I'm not dead?

The nurse laughed a little:

\- I am not an angel. You are at Tokyo Teishin Hospital. I need to ask you a few questions and give you some tests. Is that all right?

Hakuno nodded without saying a word. Her immense brown eyes roamed the room with incredible vivacity.

\- First of all, what is your name?

\- Kishinami Hakuno.

The nurse agreed and continued:

\- Kishinami-san, what is your last memory?

Hakuno opened her mouth and stopped. The teenager girl showed little emotion, but a hint of trouble had appeared in her expression. In fact, on the point of talking about her death in the Moon Cell, the Last Master had interrupted herself, remembering Rin's explanations about the secret surrounding the _Spiritrons Hackers_. After a long hesitation, she spoke of the only memory she shared with the real Hakuno:

\- A fire... I remember a burning city... everywhere people run and howl... buildings turned into torches... children stumble, blacken and shrivel...

The description, made of a monotonous voice, was perfectly horrific and Kaori instantly lost her smile. She remembered that the medical records said that Hakuno's parents died in a fire. They forgot to specify the type of fire.

\- I am sorry.

Hakuno tilted her head... and Kaori forgot to breathe for a moment. The teenager looked like an adorable doll. Even her lack of expression had something moving.

\- You had nothing to do with it, replied Kishinami.

The nurse failed to sigh and shook her head to repel a furious urge to hug her.

\- What else do you remember?

\- I know that I have Amnesia Syndrome... and that my memory has largely been destroyed.

And Kaori acquiesced:

\- Kishinami-chan, I must inform you of some painful news. Are you ready to hear them?

Hakuno nodded slowly.

\- The good news is that you have been treated for Amnesia Syndrome. Your life is no longer in danger. Unfortunately, the remedy does not have a retroactive effect, it does not restore memory.

The teenage girl nodded again to show that she had understood and waited, showing only a vague curiosity.

\- To prevent the disease from getting worse and until the medical world finds a cure you have been placed in a cryogenic chamber.

Hakuno nodded more vigorously:

\- I remember it.

-You spent almost a hundred years in hibernation. It's 2099.

This time, the teenage girl with a doll's face seemed shocked:

\- So... the people I knew...

\- Yes, Kishinami-chan, they must all be dead.

Hakuno bent her head forward as if she had been shot, and then held her hands against her chest. She suddenly raised her eyes, as if in a sudden emotion:

\- Have you heard the name Tohsaka Rin?

\- Tohsaka Rin? The hacker? The leader of the resistance against the Harways? Of course, like everyone else. She was one of the heroines of World War III.

\- Was?

\- She died in 2048, executed by the Harway Consortium when they...

Kaori stopped when Hakuno burst into tears. As she sought to console the teenager, a strange thought crossed her. Tohsaka Rin was born in 2023. Nearly ten years after Kishinami was plunged into hibernation. How could she know her? One more riddle in an already long list.

* * *

Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture

For several hours, a purification ceremony gathered a large number of Buddhist monks around the sinister black stone. On several occasions, during the last two days, the famous "killer stone" had vibrated... and it was even surrounded by a red glow.

However, their rituals had no effect. The monks performed ancient rites that once had real powers... because they were part of the _Formalcraft_. But this form of _Magecraft_ depended on the _mana _provided by the _ley lines _or "dragon veins" as the Asians called them. The pole shift, almost one hundred and twenty years earlier, had completely dried up this energy source.

The monks had no way of knowing this, but the recurring phenomena that terrified them aligned exactly with the pulsations of a strange tattoo on the hand of a teenage girl in a hospital bed.

The Command Mark was trying to re-establish contact between the Servant and the Master.

Inside the stone - as the monks suspected - Tamamo no Mae had returned. But it wasn't really the legendary Kitsune killed by the great warrior Miura-no-Suke. More like a double, which the Moon Cell had created. Fifty-nine years earlier, Caster had used the vow that the victorious Servant received to enable her Master to escape annihilation. Her soul had taken refuge in the empty body of the real Kishinami Hakuno.

If Tamamo had returned to haunt the _Sessho-seki_, it is because she was a digital entity and the Kitsune could not survive in this world without a physical form. The black stone provided one... at least temporarily. Because she would have to quickly find a source of energy to sustain her... as if by vampirisating the vital energy of visitors. What she had done until the monk Genno exorcised her. Nevertheless, Tamamo no Mae did not panic, she trusted her adorable Master to save her as she always did.

This was their strength. The Servant and the Master always found a way to save each other.

The most annoying in the present situation was to listen to the litanies of monks. To end it, she could drain some of their vital energy...

"Oh, bad Tamamo, bad", at the thought of her kind Master learning this nasty thought, she felt ashamed...

Hakuno had that effect on Tamamo. The Kitsune, however considered one of the worst monsters of Japanese legends, had only to imagine that her Master scolded her to give up all the evil ideas and cruel plans that went through her head.

It is said that love reveals the best in everyone. Near Hakuno, Caster laughed, sang, and cooked. As if she had gone back to Mizukume, Emperor Konoe's favorite concubine.

* * *

Character Sheet:

Kishinami Hakuno (Call of Chtulhu version)

Name : Kishinami

First Name : Hakuno

Gender: female

Height: 160cm

Weight: 45cm

Blood Type: O+

Age: 16 (or 119 administratively speaking)

Also Known as: The Last Master, The Victor of the Moon

Character Type: Spiritron Hacker, Magus, Master

Physical Characteristic: Average human (teen) stamina, agility and strength (F-Rank)

STRength: 07/20 DEXterity: 08/20 INTelligence: 18/20 - Idea: 90%

CONstitution: 12/20 APParence: 16/20 POWer: 14/20- Luck: 70%

SIZe: 9/20 SANity: 14/20 EDUcation: 12/20- Knowledge: 60 %

Damage bonus: -1D6

Magic Points: 14

Hit Points: 12

Mental Sanity: 40/60 (phobias: Pyrophobia)

Special Characteristic: Enhanced kinetic perception (B-rank skill)

Skills:

Biology: 20%; Botany: 10%; Chemistry: 15%; Computer Use: 99%; Dodge: 35%; Library use: 75%; Military Science: 35%; Japanese: 60%; Spot Hidden: 85%; Track: 55%

No combat skill

Magic: Spiritron Hack

* * *

(1) Gene at the origin of the memory function.

(2) Name given to the head of a "family" Yakusa, equivalent of the Godfather in the Italian-American mafia.

* * *

**Note of the author: If Hakuno and Berserker of Black of Fate/ Apocrypha meet one day, they will recognize each other as sisters. They were both created by a "father" who did not recognize them and who eventually killed them. Fun detail, according to Mary Shelley, Frankenstein ends up frozen...**

**And you can thank my mother. I was talking to her about cryogenic hibernation, and because she's a Buddhist... she gave me this idea that souls can't come back to a body that's been dead for centuries. It gave me the idea behind this story.**


	3. Chapter 3 The Last Master

**Boyzilla: No, I meant that the Moon Cell is older than life on Earth... that's the problem of using a machine translator. Sometimes the result doesn't have much to do with what we wrote.  
I've been playing Call of Chtulhu for a very long time.**

**OP? Is it overpowered? I don't think Hakuno is that powerful (especially compared to Chimeric Lunar Sea of Steel). She doesn't have the Regalia, for example. In fact, apart from its improved vision and 99% in "computer" skills, she is a very weak Magus. It is only in the computer universe that she is powerful.**

**ptl: in fact, the monsters of the Mythos are weak on Earth BECAUSE they are defeated, weakened and chained by the Outer Gods. Now, what would happen if they were released? No, no BB on the program. BB appears in CCC (which I've never played) not in Extra.**

**Akasha Blooderiver: Yes, it is indeed the invocation of Gilles de Rais (well seen... at the same time I do not think it is difficult to understand).**

**Poor Rin, she actually deserved better.**

**I really like the way Tamamo behaves in Fate Extella, Artoria route, when the King of Britain is attacked by Tamamo and Lu Bu... Artoria who- initially- finds in Tamamo the "reeking putrid of the beasts that haunted Britain" finally don't kill her after the victory because Tamamo implore Artoria to spare her Master... A monster cannot experience the pure love that Tamamo feels and Artoria realizes at this moment that she was wrong about the Kitsune. That's why I love Tamamo so much; this "monster" is actually very endearing.**

**And yes, I think my next Fanfic on Fate/Extra will include Nero. This will be a crossover with an old anime '80s with mechas and spaceships.**

**Sakaewmatsui :**** You have the gift of asking questions that I cannot answer without revealing whole parts of the plot... I can only advise you to follow this Fanfic to know the answer. All I can tell you is... the appearance of Hakuno at this very moment cannot be accidental, there is a grand plan to stop the Old Ones... and Hakuno is an essential part of it.**

* * *

**The Last Master**

The rain continued to fall, a thin and sullen shower, lukewarm and as deprived of energy, which stuck in an unpleasant way. Coming out of a perfectly air-conditioned office, Inspectors Asano and Minamoto felt like they were entering a sauna. On the calendars, the summer ended and yet the heat was suffocating. The clothes weighed down with moisture, the two men rushed to their car.  
The doors closed, they chipped.

\- What a terrible time! Boy, this is getting worse almost every day.

Minamoto was content with a shoulder lift:

\- Have you heard the news? There are worse places.

Asano filled up. In 1970, the Earth had nearly 5 billion inhabitants. By 2099, it was probably 3 billion... "Probably,' because there was no longer a worldwide body capable of taking a census of the entire population. In addition, entire regions of Africa, South America and Central Asia were cut off. The melting of polar ice and glaciers had submerged many countries such as Holland and the Maldives, making them disappear from the map. The Sahara gave birth to a new sea when the waters had poured into the Hoggar basin. Tokyo only owes its survival to the construction of a gigantic dike.  
The good news was that the height of warming had been reached. The phenomenon had even begun to reverse. It made sense, with so much moisture in the atmosphere, it kept raining and the clouds stopped the sunlight. According to scientists, cooling would be even faster than warming. The Earth was about to enter an ice age that would last thousands of years...

_Fuyu No Yorub_'s notes resonated in the cabing, relieving Asano from having to find an answer.

Picking up his cell phone, the profiler watched his frustrated colleague turn on the switch.

\- _Moshi-moshi_?

\- This is Dr. Sakamoto. I'm calling to inform you that Kishinami Hakuno is awake.

\- Good news.

\- Yes, but the memory of Kishinami-san is severely damaged as is expected of a patient of Amnesia Syndrome who has just been pulled from hibernation. Doctors of the past froze only patients whose vital prognosis was involved.

Minamoto Sezuku holding a sigh:

\- Get to the point, please. I'm on another investigation.

\- Excuse me! There is impossibility. Besides a few brides of memory of her past life, Kishinami-san remembers above all his meeting with Tohsaka Rin. But, Tohsaka was born long after she was put in hibernation.  
Minamoto passed his hand over his eyes, too tired to think:

\- Probably another person of the same name, homonymy exists.

\- Kishinami-san described Tohsaka accurately. A person of the same name, with the same appearance, the same character, is much more than homonymy.

Minamoto Sezuku admitted that the thing was strange. Especially since he knew something Dr. Sakamoto didn't know. Kishinami was a _Master_ of the Moon Cell Grail's War. These clashes between _Spiritron Hacker_ took place in the virtual universe of _Seraph_ during the 2030's. But at that time, Tohsaka was leading the resistance against the Harweys. And she was a Hacker... probably even a _Spiritron Hacker_, given her successes. Did they meet there? On the moon? Assuming it was the right answer, it posed more questions than it solved.

He shook his head, annoyed by all these riddles:

\- Doctor, I admit that I too am very intrigued. But even if this is all very strange, it is not really my responsibility. It has not become illegal to know Tohsaka Rin.

Dr. Sakamoto burst out with a little forced laughter:

\- No, of course not.

\- And physically, she is recovering from her hibernation?

\- She is recovering quickly. However, given the state of conservation... miraculous of Kishinami-san hibernation chamber, it is not so surprising. We ran various tests that confirmed that her kinetic vision is incredibly developed.

The two men exchanged some banalities, and then Minamoto hung up, except that the phone rang immediately afterwards.

\- Hello?

-Sezuku-kun? It's Tomoko!

The young woman seemed very worried, almost panicked.

-I recognized your voice, Tomoko-chan. What's going on?

\- I went to see my grandmother to show her the photos you took of the ritual where children are sacrificed. We need to talk about it. I can't talk to you about it on the phone, come and meet me at the newspaper archives.

Minamoto watched Asano Mihei hit the steering wheel, angered by the splendid slowdown that was spreading in a concert of Klaxons, just at the crossroads.

\- I am completely blocked in traffic, but I could be there in half an hour.

On the phone, a good while passed.

\- _Moshi-moshi_? Are you still there?

\- Yes…

\- I thought we had been cut.

\- No, I… I didn't think you'd get back on the wheel after…

\- I'm not driving! It's Mihei!

* * *

Kishinami Hakuno was sitting in her hospital bed, leaning against a pile of cushions. Wearing a simple sick tunic, her long brown hair fell on her shoulders. A nurse had come to brush her hair less than an hour earlier... in fact; she never stayed alone very long.

Yamada Kaori had spoken to all her colleagues about the adorable amnesiac of room 106. And all had succeeded to take care of her.

Their behavior was probably strange, but Hakuno did not notice. After all, she had no experience of hospitals... except for the infirmary of Matou Sakura in _Seraph_. However, Sakura was not really a model of mental stability. She could pass from moment to moment from the typical robotic behavior of an N.P.C. of the Moon Cell to actions out of character behaviors that creep out Hakuno.

One thing remained constant on the Moon as on Earth, a sick room was a place where we were very bored. One could look at the walls, through the window where not a single bird had passed... look at the walls again.

At least it gave Hakuno time to reflect on her situation.

Her last memories were of her being destroyed by the Moon Cell Core antivirus. How could she still be alive... and especially on Earth in the physical body of the real Hakuno? She was an N.P.C. of the Moon Cell as Matou Sakura, a simple program, a few lines of codes that had ended up being erased because useless.

Why was she alive?

Part of her rejoiced... her last memory had been the frightening fear of death, the fear of losing everything. Being here to live and breathe seemed like an incredible miracle.

Only, at the same time, living scared her. Alone... alone... so alone... Everything she did to save Tohsaka Rin just so she can survive a few years of the great massacre. In an absurd way Hakuno was mad at Rin.

Why was Rin dead?

The moral pain that brought tears to her big brown eyes was replaced by the contact of a molten iron on her hand. Once again, Command Spell woke up, radiating a bright red.

Hakuno felt something touch her cheek and blinked as she saw sakura petals swirling in the air around her.

\- Caster?

There was no answer. The mark was grey again and lifeless. Yet, for a moment, she had felt the presence of Tamamo near her.

* * *

Tokyo's megacity hadn't seen the sun in months. Its grey sky was filled with fumes rising from factories and the clouds were rolling atop skycrapers covered with megacorporation logos. Cars were driving on many fast lanes, levitating on air cushions. While air highways passing between flashing beacons and holographic billboards saw skycars passing by.

On the highest of these titanic buildings, a gigantic logo appeared on the four last floors: a simple stylized K.

Any Japanese would have recognized the logo of Kimata, the most powerful megacorporation in Asia. It dominated Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, and even the west coast of America. Automobile construction, aviation, chemistry, armament, banks, video games, films, construction, insurance, real estate... one could cite for hours the many areas in which the consortium had invested, operating a gigantic horizontal and vertical concentration.

Emerging from the ashes of the Four World War, the consortium took advantage of the vacuum of power to grow disproportionately. Its founder, President/CEO Kimata Ryuchi, had been running the firm for 25 years, with an iron hand in a steel glove.

Faced with his bulimic hunger to devour everything, his enemies denounced the birth of a new plutocracy competing with the power that the Harvey had held fifty years earlier.

It was even murmured that through its subsidiaries and numerous intermediaries, Kimata Ryuchi owned almost 40% of Japan!

As always, history was repeating itself for lack of understanding.

* * *

The Skimmer, a kind of helicopter with two large horizontal and keeled rotors, landed on the helipad at the top of the Skycrapper Kimata. First two androids came out. They looked like a futuristic variant of the famous Samurais.

Their chrome armor had alphanumeric identification markings; the oversized shoulder pads had missile launchers and a combat laser. However, the head recalled the masks adorned by the warriors of medieval Japan, while the war machine wore a katana and a wakisashi... at least vibroswords to their appearance. These blades, driven by high-frequency vibrations, could cut tank shielding.

They parted, flanking the landing bridge.

Passing between them, appeared ordinary Japanese. Of medium size, he seemed to be about sixty years old. His hair was still very black, barely strewn with silver at the temples; his face was wide, a little fleshy.

Dressed in a simple, navy-blue jacket, he wore dark glasses that hid his eyes.

A dozen businessmen and secretaries were waiting for him. As they swung apart in a deep bow, he greeted them with a brief tilt of the head before entering the elevator.

* * *

The huge meeting room was particularly remarkable by the long table in the center of the space. It seemed to be made of glass but it was actually a single interactive screen on which reports and graphics were now displayed. The directors of the various holdings gathered around Kimata, seated at the end, could access its functions from a tactile control panel.

One after the other, they reported: gains, losses, technological advances, successful or failed takeover bid, balance sheets and forecasts. We were talking about figures and money, percentages and dividends.

However, some of the speakers reported infinitely more terrifying things: press campaigns to discredit rival corporate leaders; corruption of experts to falsify environmental reports from factories or toxicity of products; assassinations of environmental activists; computer attacks on opponents. The managers of subsidiaries were not concerned about the means. After all, they had little to fear the negative repercussions. They paid the police and the politicians.  
While a beautiful young woman in Yukata carrying a tray was serving green tea to the powerful directors of the megacorporation, Kimata turned to one of his subordinates:

\- Matsuo-san?

The man named Matsuo rose with a moist forehead.

\- Explain the loss of the "club"!

Bowing deeply, the accused did not seek to defend himself:

\- It's my entire fault, Kimata-san. I didn't pay enough attention to the investigation by the police officers Minamoto Sezuku and Asano Mihei. I thought the purchase of the superiors of these two inspectors, the "donations" to politicians and judges would be enough to stop them. However, Superintendent Tokuyama, their immediate superior, provided them with all the means they needed to take the "club" by storm.

Behind his dark glasses Kimata Ryuchi's eyes remained impenetrable. Matsuo swallowed and forced himself to talk:

\- Nevertheless, the incident does not have only bad effects.

His fingers activated on the table control keyboard. The huge screen showed the face of Kishinami Hakuno and a picture of her Command Mark.

\- My agents at Tokyo Teishin Hospital have taught me that Kishinami is a _Master_!

Matsuo turned to an impressive man, dressed in a traditional kimono. He had straightened up, suddenly paying attention:

\- I think we could use Kishinami for your "project", Tokugawa-san.

Tokugawa nodded and turned to Kimata, who was still impassive. He took the time to reflect before answering:  
\- Matsuo-san, I entrust you with the "acquisition" of Kishinami. After all, we lost it because of you. I advise you to succeed; I do not associate with the losers. Do we understand each other?

The megacorporation Kimata talked about kidnapping human beings as if it were just a takeover bid. Frozen, scornful, its directors lived only to satisfy the wound perpetually alive of their own ego. Nothing ever satisfied them. They were never rich enough and ever more jealous of their neighbor's fortune. Their greed was a gaping chasm.

Matuso did not hesitate for a moment:

\- Yes, Kimata-san, I would not disappoint you.

\- It would be better... in your interest.

There was no friendship between the leaders of the megacorporation, just a grouping of converging interests. Their relations were limited to a simple balance of power. Of course, no one would be embarrassed of feelings to eliminate the helpless ally, or the one who became a rival.

* * *

The _Mashi Shimbun_ was one of the last printed newspapers in Japan. In this century of all digital, it found its public among the wealthy people who could afford to buy this kind of archaism.

It was mainly an independent newspaper, not belonging to any major information consortium. Which were in the hands of megacorporations dominating the world.

The _Mashi Shimbun_ promised information without compromise. Worse, its journalists managed to denounce the megacorporations' shenanigans and survive.

The newspaper owned by a handful of shareholders sharing the independence of its founder, all attempts to buy it and replace the editorial team with more understanding people had failed. On the other hand, the newspaper had escaped numerous "accidents" and was in perpetual litigation with one or the other of the multinationals.

Minamoto Sezuku got out of the car, parked in the underground parking lot, and turned to Asano Mihei, still behind the wheel:

\- Wait for me here.

\- Okay.

Neglecting the elevator... a precaution that became customary for this cop who escaped one attempted murder a month, Sezuku climbed the staircase. The walls were grey, without frills.

When he reached the fourth floor, he pushed a door into the hallways painted in soft green. The _Mashi Shimbun_, he knew the place well. It had been well ten years since Sezuku came regularly. The archives were behind a double-flapping door.

The newspaper owner wanted to physically keep the copies of his daily newspaper. Even if they were digitized after a decade, it needed a huge room to keep them all.

People had lost the habit of doing library research. Also, no one ever came into the archives... which made it the ideal place to chat in private. And then, Tomoko was one of Japan's last _Magi_... and the _Magi_ loved books. Working for one of the last printed newspapers allowed her to handle physical books regularly.

As he entered, his former wife sighed:

\- I was beginning to wonder if you were coming.

\- There was a demonstration.

They sat at a table next to one of the shelves, where newspapers were stored in plastic packaging.  
\- So, tell me. What did you find out, Tomoko?

The journalist displayed the photos in front of her, as if they were playing cards. A six-pointed star was clearly visible in the middle of a double circle:

\- This is the ritual of invocation of a _Servant_.

The unfamiliar term meant nothing to Sezuku:

\- A _Servant_?

\- A _Heroic Spirit_.

\- As in the Holy Grail Wars?

\- Exactly.

Minamoto Sezuku began to swear:

\- Tomoko, come to the point. I don't understand anything. You told me that the Fuyuki Grail was dead...  
\- Dormant, in fact. If the _mana_ came back to irrigate the _Ley-lines_, it would wake up.

\- But without the Holy Grail, no _Servant_ can be invoked.

Sezuku said more this to reassure himself than by real optimism, and Tomoko broke this hope net:

\- I never said that. The Grail War uses the _Servants_, but there is no prohibition against invoking them outside this ritual. Simply put, the Fuyuki Grail uses a simplified invocation ceremony that even an amateur can achieve. Above all, the Grail provides the _Servants_ with much of the _prana_ necessary for their materialization.

Inspector Minamoto shook his head:

\- The creators of this macabre ceremony can succeed in summoning a _Servant_?!

Tomoko nodded:

\- According to my grandmother, they will eventually get there. By performing the ceremony on the full moon, they can harvest some lunar _mana_. And above all they sacrifice children, who have more _prana_ than adults. They have failed so far because they lacked something essential.

\- The suspense is unbearable Tomoko. I grant you, you know how to handle your effects. But I had a long day. So what do they miss?

\- A true _Master_. At each ceremony the M_aster_ is dead... because he was unable to bear the burden of the _prana_ cost of a Servant. Only the homunculi made by the Einzbern could provide so much energy without the help of the Holy Grail. Only, our "friends" cheat... They did not content themselves with a _Master_, at each ceremony. They also used _prana_ "batteries" in the form of sacrificed children. Before every full moon, they kidnap children, always more children... until they have enough to succeed. However, with Kishinami Hakuno they have the opportunity to take a shortcut to success.

Minamoto Sezuku rose, suddenly blemish:

\- That's right, she's a _Master_!

\- With an inactive Command Mark. If our "friends" made her participate to the next session, they will certainly succeed in summoning a _Servant_.

\- Yes, but he will not be loyal to them...

\- Oh, yes. All they have to do is insert a remote-controlled mini-bomb into Kishinami's cerebral cortex. The first priority of a _Servant_ is to protect his _Master_. The _Heroic Spirit_ will be obliged to obey if our "friends" threaten to kill her.

Detective Minamoto was thinking fast.

News of the discovery of the cryogenic capsule of Kishinami had not filtered in the official media. However, Sezuku was certain that their enemies were well informed. Although a police officer was always looking out for the teenage girl, she was probably not safe.

\- The full moon is in four days.

Without even listening to Tomoko who wanted to add something, he started running. However, an instinct told him that he would never arrive in time.

* * *

Night fell on the Tokyo Teishin Hospital.

In her room, Hakuno kept getting bored. She couldn't get out because of the policeman at the door. He did not want her to go out "for her protection". According to the police officer, she was in danger of being kidnapped. Of course, Kishinami had learned the extraordinary conditions of the discovery of her cryogenic capsule. Nevertheless, The Last Master had difficulty understanding that she could represent any value.

Hakuno had come back to sit on the bed.

If only she had something to read.

She had asked Yamada Kaori, but she seemed surprised. According to the nurse, books could only be found in the museum. The young woman had turned on the television to try to occupy her, but Hakuno had quickly been disgusted by the mixture of silly games, incomprehensible TV series and news channels spouting a flood of disasters.

Kishinami had looked only a few minutes, but the critical spirit she had acquired during the Grail War had put her on alert. The civilization that produced this kind of "entertainment" could not go well.  
In fact, the Master preferred to return to silence.

The malaise did not leave her.

Games that openly thought the spectator was a mental moron. TV shows that used every pretext to show naked girls, hyper-violent anime. Continuous news channels filming disasters like voyeurs on the pretext of information.

Perhaps the worst was the frequent interruptions by loud advertisements. They used the coarsest strings to encourage viewers to buy the products they showed. In fact, half the time she spent in front of the screen was spent watching those commercials.

The same television that made the apology of man's most primary desires served as the main vector of publicity.

That was so terrifying!

The arrival of the meal tray did not comfort Hakuno. No one ever bragged about cooking in hospitals, but the reconstituted foods of the late 21st century had not helped. We ate seaweed which had been given the "form and taste" of the food of the previous century. But you had to be very tolerant about the shape and even more about the taste.

According to Yamada Kaori, the series of disasters and wars known by the world over the last hundred years had completely ravaged the ecosystem.

Suddenly, Hakuno understood better that no bird landed on her window.

As The Last Master ate this tasteless meal, sad and upset by what she had just learned, things accelerated.

* * *

They were called Tech-Ninjas or Corporate Ninjas. In the end of the 21st century, when corporations can be brutal and even deadly, these shadow assassins are an ideal way to conduct covert operations against rivals. Espionage, sabotage, and even assassination are conducted by these infiltrator specialists.

Corporate Ninja are trained from childhood. Most of this spies and thieves have been kidnapped at early age and brainwashed for a perfect devotion to the megacorporation which use them.

They crawled under the cover of the night and climbed the fence surrounding the Tokyo Teishin Hospital like stealth shadows.

They use light stealth armor. The black suit consists of polycarbonate, metal plates and padding. The knuckles have vibro-claws used for climbing and combat. A shadow wearing a mask with air filter and polarized eye lens used his wrist computer to interface with the hospital computer via an ambulance access.

The neutralized security systems, the surveillance cameras showed only ordinary images. And the Corporates Ninjas resumed their lead.

One of them used the grapple lance integrated into his right arm wristband to climb up to the window of room 106. There he used a miniaturized laser to cut the bars. Normally this would have caused a safety alert. However, the signal did not reach the security guards because the hacker had intercepted it.

As their comrades watched at the foot of the rope, two shadows crept into the silent hospital chamber. Darkness reigned for normal eyes. But the Tech-Ninja had multi-spectrum lenses. Changing the filter they could see the inside of the chamber in thermal vision, or in increased light.  
The only living presence was a figure resting in the bed.

As they approached, she straightened up.

* * *

It was a feeling of discomfort that awakened Hakuno.

She chipped and sat down. The hospital room was plunged into darkness. However, two things were immediately imposed upon her. First the open window, source of a faint clarity that spilled into the room. The bars were sawn. Then she felt a presence... No, two... they were discreet moving without making a noise. Nevertheless, they were not in the same league as Li Shuwen. Compared to the Grail War Assassin and his ability to make himself invisible, they were poor amateurs.

Kishinami threw herself forward to reach the doorbell that called the nurses, but arms closed on her. A hand gagged her. The man was taller than her and well trained, he wore armor. Struggling and kicking only hurt poor Hakuno. While the first ninja dragged her to the window, the second had taken a hypodermic gun. It was not really a weapon, but rather a high-tech variant of a syringe. It contained an incapacitating serum as powerful as it was harmless.

\- Caster!

Helpless, Hakuno called her _Servant_ to help. Her cry was stifled by the hand of her captor. However, it was not without effect.

Kishinami had called with all her heart, wishing the reassuring presence of her friend. A red glow appeared on the adolescent's hand. The tip of the stylized fleur-de-lys tatoo-like mark radiated more than the rest. After one last flicker, it returned to gray contrary of the two others Command Mark... but it had accomplished it task.

A whirlwind formed in the room, throwing cherry petals onto the floor.

\- Husband-sama!

Horrified, the two ninjas saw the appearance of a beautiful woman, dressed in a short kimono. She had the ears and tail of a fox... no Japanese would have hesitated to call her _kitusune_. A furious _kitsune_...  
\- Get your hands off my husband, you bugs!

The first ninja, thrown against a wall, broke a piece of furniture and collapsed like a fabric doll... the second lived only a brief additional moment; sharp claws opened his throat without being stopped by the armor he was wearing.

* * *

The policeman on guard rushed into room 106 and lit the light. Two tech-ninjas bodies were lying on the floor... amidst cherry petals. But there's no sign of Kishinami Hakuno or whoever killed the two ninjas.

* * *

**Note from the author:**

**Remind me never to upset Tamamo no Mae.**

**I would especially like to apologize for the lengths I made on the lamentable state of the Extra-world in 2099... In fact, the situation of this Earth required this development and the "soap" format of the fanfic did not allow me to spread the explanation on several chapters if I wanted it to mark the reader. You must understand that in 2099 the world of Extra is in agony, life is disappearing, human society is falling apart... but multinationals are only concerned to hide the truth so that they can continue to make profits. All this is of course a work of fiction and any resemblance to the actions of real multinationals is pure coincidence... isn't it?  
A situation conducive to the return of the Old Ones...**


	4. Chapter 4 The Night of the Fox

**Sakaewmatsui: I hope so!**

**Akasha Boolriver: ****Who are you talking about when you're talking about someone who knows they're a Master?**** If it's from Matsuo, he knows a lot about the Masters and the Servants... after all they're looking to summon one and they can recognize Command Spell.**

**If you hate the idea of them talking about Hakuno as a decorative object, this new chapter will give you more reason to complain.**

**And yes, Hakuno is a Moon Cell Grail War veteran with a devoted (cute) Servant.**

**Sawtooth44: probably no… **(Sawtooth44: awww)

* * *

**The night of the Fox**

The night extended its grip on Tokyo Bay. A night of storm. The night sky was convulsing with clouds, stirred by whirling winds. The rain fell into a dense curtain that would fill the skyscrapers, dampen the neon and deafened the sound of the vehicles.

At the moment, the blighted lightning flashes were drawing zigzags in the sky before hitting the lightning rods that were crowning the office buildings.

The show was an apocalypse, an enchantment of light and power, unleashing the forces of nature and then the thunder drum rolled. It burst out with the force of a small explosion, passing between the blind facades of towers where only a few windows shone.

Towards the sea, the waves hammered the high wall separating the bay from the Pacific Ocean. Formerly, at this location was the Rainbow Bridge. But with the rising sea level, a dike had replaced it. This pre-stressed concrete wall resisted the most ferocious, the most patient of all the elements... water.

In the storm's rage, all who could remain safe did however, a fast and stealthy silhouette jumped from one building to another, running on the roofs...

* * *

A woman was running on the rooftops of the megacity.

She was clad in a blue Shrine-maiden outfit with a black obi and cut-off sleeves, and mini-dress short cut. To tell you the truth, the chest portion of the kimono showed a risqué décolletage... Her outfit was completed with black kneehigh socks and... tall sandals, so high that people wondered how she could stand.

No pure and honorable miko can wear this dress... but she was not a miko. The most drawing feature of this strange Shrine-maiden was a pair of fluffy fox ears in her pink tied up hairs, and an equally fluffy fox tail.

She was Tamamo no Mae, monster, Servant... Wise mother and lovely spouse (it is she who says it and I would not dare to contradict her).

Tamamo ran carrying a package summarily wrapped in a sheet... a package shivering in the rain that soaked the fabric, a teen girl with large brown eyes and long hair of the same shade.

After the terror of the techno-ninja attack, Kishinami Hakuno trembled as much with retrospective fear as with cold. The Victor of the Moon looked up at her savior. Tamamo held her adored Master against her ample chest, an ecstatic expression on her face. In fact, as she placed her cheek on the top of her head, Hakuno heard her... purr. Uh... foxes purring now?

Perhaps tired of running, or simply wanting to think a little, Caster came to rest on the top of a small building with a roof covered with technical facilities.

\- Goshujin-sama, this Tamamo is very happy to finally be reunited with her super-duper-ultra-cute Master.

\- Thank you, Caster... I've missed you... too.

Tamamo adored her ears and tenderly held her beloved Master. The moment of tenderness was interrupted by Hakuno's awkward coughing.

\- Caster, can I stand up?

\- Yes, of course...

Still wrapped in the sheet torn from her hospital bed, Hakuno approached the edge of the roof, grabbing the fence with one hand to look at the crowded streets of cars and skycars moving at various heights.

\- What should we do? I don't know who those men were who tried to kidnap me, or why. I know nothing about this time... what should I do?

Hakuno turned to Tamamo. The Kitsune rubbed her chin.

\- The world has changed a lot over the last 60 years. Do you feel this "weird", "unusual" feeling, like everything around us is not as neat as it should be and the colors are strangely dull? Goshujin-sama is the result of the lack of _mana_ in the atmosphere. Men, like all living beings, need _mana_ to feel "normal".

Caster is packing up:

\- Goshujin-sama, it is as if the whole world were crying out for despair. The first problem we have to solve is that the energy I get from you is insufficient.

\- Are you in danger?

Hakuno's anxious reaction surprised Tamamo, who couldn't resist, jumping around her Master's neck:

\- Goshujin-sama! No, don't worry... This Tamamo is a Caster Class Servant, I would find a way to regenerate my energy. I already have some ideas. Ironically, if I could activate my Noble Phantasm, I wouldn't have a problem... except I don't have enough energy to activate my Noble Phantasm.

Tamamo's ears trembled when she felt her Master shaking with all her limbs. Then Hakuno sneezed.

\- Goshujin-sama?

\- It is cold...

Tamamo pushed away her master at arm's length and looked critically at her. The teenager was completely wet. The damp cloth stuck to her, and her hair looked like seaweed washed away by the tide.

The Kitsune looked like a balloon that deflated, her ears lay on her head and her tail bent to the ground:

\- I'm Tamamortified! I abducted my cute Master with nothing for her to wear. Bad Tamamo... bad!

Holding her sheet with one hand, Hakuno stretched out the other to caress Caster's head between the two ears.

\- That's all right, Caster.

* * *

The Mall was a classical shopping center.

It looked like a kind of big arena covered by a translucent dome. The central space was invaded by a forest of elevators and escalators surrounding a green space used for the relaxation of stressed consumers.

The successive, increasingly high rings were home to fashion shops, restaurants, a gaming center, a sauna, bakeries, cyber accessories stores and a barber.

The shopping mall was open from 08:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M.

For several hours now, the last workers had left the premises. Only the keeper remained on the scene, monitoring the screens that covered an entire wall of his small premises. Patrols were made of security robots resembling some kind of bipedal crab. Each was armed with a Taser capable of neutralizing a possible thief.

Like every night, the security guard looked at the screens in front of him, seeking to recognize the signs of an intrusion. Apart from him and the monitors, the security room housed a metal cabinet that was, in fact, a computer. A datajack monitor allowed the gatekeeper to access the programs running the robotic vigils and modify their orders.

Yawning to unhook his jaw, the man of forty years rubbed his eyes before swallowing a sip of tea at his steaming cup.

His eyes passed on the screens which showed all the different doors allowing people to enter and leave the Mall. The iron curtains and grilles were closed. Underground parking continued to be used even at night, but the doors connecting to the shopping center were closed.

The guard finished his inspection by the various service or delivery doors. All were... the man stopped without believing his eyes a door was carelessly open. On the screen he could see the broken lock. Yet he turned to a schematic chart covering one of the walls. It represented the Mall, every exit, every security system was represented by a diode, all pulsating with a reassuring green. In fact, if someone had tried to break the lock, the alarm sounded immediately in the security room.

Hacking!

Someone must have neutralized the security system, sending it false data to "convince" the computer that the open door was still closed.

All these thoughts had gone through him in an instant. He was already standing up, reaching for a red button... except that he stopped and collapsed in all its length... immersed in a dreamless sleep.

* * *

Caser began to laugh, one hand in front of her mouth, it was a throat sound, warm and mocking.

\- It's done, Goshujin-sama, the guard is asleep.

Wearing only her sick robe, Hakuno walked barefoot on the cold ground of the Mall. She left behind her wet footprints and drops of water fell from her hair. Sneezing, she rubbed her bare arms of her hands. It was summer, but the rain was cold.

Snapping her teeth, the Master approached the small control panel that commanded the iron curtain of a clothing store.

\- **Code Cast: Hack !**

On her arms Magic Circuits pulsating with green light were drawn.

In the virtual world of Seraph, "hack" was a Code Cast to paralyze an opponent. Of course, most Cast Code didn't work in the real world, because it was a cyberspace magic. "Hack" was one of the few exceptions. In the real world, the Code Cast allowed Hakuno to interface with any computer

The control panel was a rudimentary computer, its functions? Open, close... recognize a store employee, give the alarm in case of no recognition.

Compared to the vast ocean of the Moon Cell, the computer was only a protozoan. It only took one thought for Hakuno to "persuade" the control panel that she had just presented a perfectly valid employee key. Immediately, the Iron curtain slipped on its tracks.

Hakuno had no reason to fear that the security robots would disturb them; the Spiritron Hacker had neutralized the computer that controlled them, placing it under her control.

Tamamo grabbed her Master by the hand and dragged her inside. The Kitsune had chosen a shop for young people and there were clothes for teenagers arranged by age. She then turned to the Victor of the Moon, her ears quivered without interruption and her smile was gaping:

\- Goshujin-sama, you are still trembling with cold, but have no fear. This devoted Tamamo will come with you to the dressing room to help you change.

Kishinami blushes to the eyes:

\- Ca... caster? I can handle myself...

\- No, no, Goshujin-sama, let your loving wife take care of all this. Your fingers are numb and we have no time to waste, especially since we also need shoes, underwear and food.

* * *

The police officers Minamoto Sezuku and Asano Mihei stood in the great lobby of the Mall. The first one showed his card to a colleague from the crime lab:

\- I am in charge of the Kishinami case.

Still half asleep, Minamoto Sezuku reviewed the events of the last hours.

As he had suspected, Sezuku had arrived too late at the Tokyo Teishin Hospital. Kishinami had been kidnapped. However, the bodies of two corporate Ninjas were lying in her room. They had been slaughtered by a being endowed with extraordinary strength and sharp claws.

What happened, conflict with other kidnappers?

In any case, when he had returned home, his pager had pulled him out of a sleep too short. While the policeman more or less expected to never hear from the teenage girl again or worse, to find her floating in the bay, she had left traces of her presence in the Mall.

The police scientist, a young woman, stood up:

\- Inspector Minamoto, I am Sono Mikasa.

\- Nice to meet you, Mikasa-san.

The policewoman handed out a small computer and made some manipulations, while commenting:

\- When the intrusion was revealed, we immediately identified the barefoot marks on the ground.

By hand, the young woman showed a fluorescent sign indicating the position of a clue:

\- We took a sample which we analyzed and transmitted to the police mainframe.

Two spirals of DNA were superimposed on the screen that Sono Mikasa held in his hand. Two words in red began to flash: **[Match Found]**, replaced quickly by a simple name: **[Kishinami Hakuno]**.

\- As you can see, this is the DNA of Kishinami-san.

Sezuku massaged his face, mentally imploring after a great swig of coffee:

\- I don't understand anything. Kishinami is abducted at the beginning of the night and reappears here to...

He turned to one of the stores at the raised iron curtain; a team took photos in flash:

\- Stealing clothes to fit?

None of this made any sense. Those who had kidnapped Kishinami had to have a solid organization, able to locate her and send a killer powerful enough to eliminate two corporate ninjas in seconds.

Unless he's on the wrong track and whoever killed the ninjas didn't have to find Kishinami-san... A person as lost in time as the girl was.

Sezuku shook his head and apologized to his colleagues before moving away. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed a number. The person he was calling was waiting for his message and answered almost immediately:

\- Tomoko, what does it take to summon a Servant?

There was a brief silence, and then his ex-wife had a low laugh:

\- Do you think Kishinami-san managed to summon a Servant?

\- That's the only thing that would make sense...

\- So we have a teenager torn out of her time in this city. She is pursued by assassins and a Heroic Spirit protects her. She must be found as soon as possible, otherwise the dead will accumulate. Come and get me at home.

* * *

Matsuo was one of the most important directors of the Kimata. Standing behind his desk, he looked at the city of Tokyo, which lay at his feet without seeing it. The night storm had dissipated at the first light of day, but the rain continued to fall without stopping. His thoughts were as dark as time. He risked his future in the megacorporation and his life itself.

He only turned around when he heard the interphone ringing, which connected him to his secretary:

\- Mr Director, Suzuki-san is here to see you.

\- Let him in.

The man who entered looked like any high-ranking employee, wearing the uniform of the Kimata megacorporation. However, he managed the security of his branch... and from there, the Ninjas were at his command.

He bowed down deeply:

\- Mr Director.

\- Cut to the chase, Suzuki-san.

\- Yes, sir. Our "friends" within the police have provided us with copies of the investigation reports at the Mall and Tokyo Teishin Hospital. My men are following police officers Minamoto Sezuku and Asano Mihei.

Matsuo lifted up his eyes:

-Your _best_ men, I hope! We cannot afford another failure.

Suzuki bowed down:

\- Yes, Matsuo-san, my best men.

\- All right, then I expect a positive final report from you. Those who know how to tell me good news will be rewarded. In addition, those who displease President/CEO Kimata Ryuchi can hardly expect mercy from him.

\- Yes, sir.

\- Don't forget that. If we fall, we will fall together.

\- Yes, sir.

As Matsuo gave him the leave of a hand movement, Suzuki-san bowed once more and turned around.

Left alone, the branch manager stood up and once again stood behind the bay window that dominated the megalopolis. A smile appeared on his reflection... the best men of Suzuki were monsters... in the strictest sense! Cybernetization, drugs, _Magecraft_ all methods had been used to turn them into war machines entirely devoted to their superiors.

* * *

\- On the right!

Its rotating beacon on the roof and its sounding siren, the unmarked hovercar turn, rushing through a street.

\- Straight ahead!

Sitting in the back seat, Tomoko concentrated, holding a picture of Kisinami Hakuno in her hands. The task was difficult but the Origin of the Magus was: **vision**. From her early childhood, she had had flashes of the future or other places. All she had to do was touch an object belonging to a person or a photo that represented him, and the visions would attack her. It was a powerful gift... and a real curse. It was difficult for her to control and it could be triggered at any time.

Behind the wheel, Asano Mihei followed the medium's instructions without protesting. Once again, he didn't understand anything... Of a silent nature, he rarely voiced his protests or his lack of understanding but the situation was beginning to be unbearable. He knew that Tomoko was psychic, although she doesn't really advertise her gift but... what could a "Servant" be?

At his side, in the passenger seat, Minamoto Sezuku looked like a bad day. He turned to his ex-wife:

\- Do you still feel that presence?

\- The Servant? Yes, no doubt... a very powerful creature is near Kishinami-san. It disturbs my gift.

Tomoko shivered, so touching the spirit of Kishinami conveyed to her an uncomfortable feeling. She not only felt the presence of the adolescent girl... she also felt her emotions and echoes of her memories. In his mind there were foreign concepts: Moon Cell... Seraph... Seven Chimeric Lunar Seas... Attack-Type programs... Apostasy... Agitator... Moondust... Esher... Prophecy... all kinds of strange digital creatures... and violence... The spirit of Kishinami Hakuno contained only regret, remorse, loneliness and suffering... the memory of a merciless war that haunted the adolescent girl.

Inspector Asano clears his throat:

\- I think I know where Kishinami is, and that's not good news.

From his chin, he pointed to the park in front of them. All of them make sour faces.

* * *

Once, Ueno Park was Tokyo's main tourist attraction. Located in the Taito district, the park covered more than 60 hectares. Unfortunately, the economic recession and successive disasters devastated it. The zoo animals were starved to death.

Clashes between rival bands ended in devastation, while the Uneo-no-mori Art Museum was looted. The other buildings, although better able to cope with the riots and sporadic clashes that regularly bloodied the park, were abandoned or even occupied by gangs.

Dominated by a five-storey pagoda, the temple of Toshogu dates from the seventeenth century. It was an impressive religious building built by Ieyasu Tokugawa, founder of the Shogun Tokugawa dynasty. The huge, stacked driveway leading to the gates of the sanctuary was once decorated with about fifty bronze lanterns offered by warlords... alas, none had escaped the plunder.

Sitting on the entrance steps of the sanctuary, Tamamo looked with sadness at the ruins of traditional Japan. While a few hundred meters from there stood proud towers competing with mountains, centuries-old temples had been allowed to wither.

The Cherry Tree Alley was full of dead trees and the Shinobazu Pond was reduced to a foul puddle.

Frowning, the kitsune looked at a car that had just appeared. The wheelless vehicle, floating on an air cushion, came to rest at the beginning of the driveway lined with small stone lanterns. Three people, two men dressed in casual clothing and a woman in a leather jacket descended. Tamamo being in spiritual form, they could not see her. However, they were moving towards the temple.

Caster focused on the bond between her and her Master:

\- Goshujin-sama, people are coming towards us.

Hakuno who slept in the hall stood up rubbing her eyes, sweeping the walls covered with tags. Seals of protection had also been drawn by Tamamo on the ground, magical sentinels protecting her from any attack.

Hakuno was dressed in a rather simple way in pink jeans and a green sweater. She wrapped herself in a red hooded poncho adorned with real flat screens that diffused decorative images, a kind of GIF that began again and again.

Even as they climbed the steps, Hakuno faced the newcomers.

* * *

It was a strange shock for Minamoto Sezuku. Somewhere, he had not stopped chasing Kishinami Hakuno during the last four days. But it was the first time he'd seen her alive.

The teenage girl looked... ordinary. A 16-year-old girl with long brown hair cut into fringes and a face without expression. She looked at them without saying anything. Strangely, Sezuku felt uncomfortable. He had somewhat expected anything... that she would run away from their approach or that she would hide, not stand there in front of them without saying a word.

Almost mechanically, he pulled out his police badge:

\- Kishinami Hakuno-san? I am Inspector Minamoto of the Tokyo Police Department. If you'd like to come with me to the station, I have a few questions.

The teenager stared at a point in the void, then turned around, leaning her head to the side:

\- Why?

The policeman started coughing, surprised by the head movement. When she did that, Kishinami was just too cute. In fact, he heard Tomoko hold his breath behind his shoulder. They didn't know it, but they were just the last victims of what Tamamo called the "**Goshujin-sama super head tilt Noble Phantasm (Ex Rank)**".

Minamoto shook, aware of having remained long seconds without reaction looking at the strangely adorable expressionless girl:

\- Well... you were attacked by corporate ninjas yesterday and...

\- Corporate Ninja?

\- Yes, the masked people who appeared in your hospital room. We'd like to take you back to the police station so you can be safe there, Kishinami-san.

Again, the adolescent's gaze turned to a point in the void. She seemed to listen to something or someone and nodded:

\- I was "protected" by a policeman, yet they entered without difficulty.

Embarrassed, Minamoto did not know what to answer, Tomoko suddenly spoke:

\- Could we meet your Servant?

Hakuno quivered, showing for the first time real emotions, a mixture of surprise, worry and mistrust. However, she acted astonished:

\- Servant? What are you talking about?

Tomoko showed the hand of the teenage girl and the Command Spell reduced to two marks since using the first to call Tamamo:

\- You are a Master and you invoked a Servant yesterday to defend yourself from the attack of the ninjas. I would like to meet him.

\- That is a very imprudent wish, but you will be granted.

The voice that had just resounded, warm and sensual, was very different from the light soprano of Kishinami. All turned to... a vacillation of blue and silver particles that quickly condensed into a feminine silhouette. While Tomoko and Minamoto were content to hock and retreat, the calm Asano leapt back and gleaned words without follow.

Is it a woman?

She walked with provocative grace, moving sensually from the hips... her widely cut kimono left little doubt on her feminine nature... but not human given the tail swinging in its wake and its quivering triangular ears.

She coughed with affected elegance and Inspector Minamoto could not help noticing the short claws replacing her nails. There's no doubt that it was the weapon that killed one of the techno-ninja...

\- Ufu-ufu... Who are you to dare to pursue my beloved husband?

Husband? Unintentionally, Minamoto swept the temple esplanade in search of the kitsune husband... and stopped on Kishinami. There was then a brief silent exchange. "Husband?" questioned the police inspector's gaze. The Victor of the Moon shrugged her shoulders with an embarrassed smile: "That's what she decided".

Sezuku stopped laughing... and banging his head against the nearest wall. This investigation reached the ultimate absurdity. What was expected of a policeman under these circumstances? Was there an article in the penal code that allowed him to arrest a Kitsune who had been dead centuries ago for stealing from a store?

He massaged his forehead:

\- I'm just trying to protect your... husband.

\- Well, we don't need you!

\- Oh yes, and what do you propose to do, Kitsune-san? Hide her in a temple? Steal clothes and food? Do you think this is a life? Kishinami-san has a legal existence. It is a citizen of this country and has the right to an education and a home.

The police officer's reproaches struck Tamamo like lightning. Her ears lay on the top of his head:

\- Argh...

She took a wet look at her Master:

\- Horror, Goshujin-sama... your wife cannot guarantee a roof over your head and must rob to feed you.

Hakuno held out her hand to caress her Servant between her ears. She said nothing but the Kitsune turned to the policeman and sighed:

\- Okay, we'll go with you. I'll go back to my spiritual form and...

Tamamo stopped suddenly standing in front of her Master, fangs and claws discovered. Her yellow eyes seemed to want to spit flames staring... Minamoto turned around to see a horde of ninjas advancing in the alley.

The policeman shuddered.

He had never seen such a band of horrors. Some had an arm or a part of the head replaced by complex mechanisms. Others looked like patchworks of animal and human parts, or had additional mechanical arms. But they all wore a tight black outfit and various pieces of armor, sometimes decorated with spikes. They used a variety of weapons from traditional ninja weapons to assault rifles.

They surrounded a man in power armor, it was the one who spoke:

\- Hakuno Kishinami-san, I serve a powerful head of enterprise. You happen to be his belongings and he does not appreciate that one touches his property. If you come with us without resistance, I want to assure you that you will be properly treated... and your Servant as well.

Tamamo gnashed her teeth, offended that she was treated like a thing... and even more that her beloved Master was called "property" and "belongings" as if she were just a precious trophy.

Hakuno touched her hand in a reassuring way before speaking:

\- What about them?

The Victor of the Moon named the policemen and the young woman who accompanied them. The man in power-armor giggled:

\- Them? They embarrassed my superior too much. It's time they disappeared.

Hakuno looked up at her Servant:

\- Caster, gets ready.

\- Of course, Goshujin-sama.

\- Skill!

Tamamo threw an ofuda yielling: "**Curse: Fiery Heaven!**"

This is how the confrontation began...

* * *

Beta Note

Sawtooth44: hello fellow readers as of the 2nd chapter and this chapter i have become the beta of our good friend here and while sometimes the chapter may be delyad (stupid hotmail believing the chapters are junk emails) i shall strive to give as good quality as i can so the curse of translastion errors shall be a thing of the past, See ya all in the "reviews"


	5. Chapter 5 Foxfire

**Boyzilla: Oh, but ninjas also use Mystic Codes. Their masters have real knowledge in the Magecraft, enough to want to summon a Servant (and succeed). That said they do not know that a Servant alone surpasses hundreds of human beings. And how could they know that? No Servant has been summoned to Earth in the last century!**

**Yes, Hakuno has the equivalent of the Servant skill "Eye of the Mind (False)" but no capacity in real combat for use it.**

**Akasha BloodriveR: Yes, they transform men with Magecraft... and other methods. But, this is megacorporation "pragmatism". Human right? I earn money if I respect them? No? Then not interested.**

**Author Note: I did not really seek a vote on what readers wanted to see in this chapter, but those who spoke (Boyzilla, Akasha Bloodriver and Sakaewmatsui) could not be clearer. Tamamo? You have permission to cut the ninjas into small pieces. That said she didn't really need your permission...**

* * *

**Foxfire**

* * *

_[Attack!]_

The mental order of Hakuno touched Tamamo no Mae even as she dodged the assault of a techno-ninja whose two arms had been replaced by cybernetic limbs wielding huge claws.

She made a small leap aside, guiding with her hand her Noble Phantasm floating near her. It was a richly decorated mirror called _Suiten Nikkō Amaterasu Yano Shizu-Ishi_. Even used as a kind of flying disc, it was a powerful weapon.

\- Yahhhh!

The ninja found himself thrown several meters back in an explosion of metal and blood...

Already another assassin in black replaced him. He had four cybernetic arms, each holding a vibro-katana.

For Kishinami Hakuno, he seemed to be dragging his feet. His gestures stretched endlessly, allowing the young Master to analyze his movements and understand.

Four simultaneous attacks in power... Weakness: slow attack... Exploitation: fast counter-attack.

His thought was already passed on to the Servant:

_[Attack!]_

\- Yieeeeh!

The mirror spun into a glittering arc, impossible to follow from the eyes of an ordinary human. The Corporate Ninja collapsed, releasing its weapons.

Two other ninjas followed in his footsteps, unlike their predecessors, they used ranged weapons. The first had a machine gun and the second had a heavy assault rifle. The projectiles were the fruit of alchemy, capable of injuring a creature made of _prana_ as a Servant. These were dangerous weapons.

_[Guard!]_

Without even trying to think, Caster raised her mirror like a shield. Such was their relationship. Once the battle began, there was absolute trust between them. One ordered, the other obeyed. Together, they were invincible. In the Seraph, Hakuno had often won battles against the _Enemy Program_ without Tamamo receiving more than a few scratches.

Under a bush, a ninja fired a sniper's rifle wired to his cybernetic eye. As the Servant stepped behind her mirror, which sparkled under the shots she blocked, the murderer pulled the trigger of his weapon.

Only, for Hakuno's eyes and special brain, the heavy projectile dragged like a lazy bumblebee.

_[Guard!]_

With grace, Tamamo swirled on herself, raising the shield between two Ninja volleys, to intercept the large caliber ball:

\- You are a pain in the a-... tail!

Even though Caster was furious, she still controlled her language. Despite the perilous situation, Hakuno smiled involuntarily. It was Tamamo... she always sought to protect her, including herself, correcting her language. Because, as Tamamo had told her shortly after their first meeting, recounting her real story was told stories of "exposed boobs and gore".

_[Skill !]_

Tamamo grabs a piece of paper covered with ideograms:

\- _Curse: Fiery Heaven!_

Tentacles of fire fell from the sky where she had thrown the ofuda, enveloping two ninjas that ignited instantly.

_[Skill!]_

\- _Curse: Frigid heaven!_

A wall of ice came out of the ground where the sniper was standing. Frozen, he no longer represented the slightest danger.

_[Goshujin-sama, I can only use my spells six times!]_

Hakuno grimaced; her Servant's energy supply had fallen below 200 units. The Victor of the Moon realized that Caster was very weak. However, she had to resort to the magical fox girl's _Magecraft _to counter ranged attacks. This was the only possible tactical choice. Sending her across the battlefield to attack the gunmen would leave her unprotected...

Kishinami looked at the two petrified cops who looked at the fight as if they were hallucinating.

And she couldn't count on ordinary humans to protect her.

The Servant's demonstration of power had caused the assailants to float. Tamamo push her advantage with an evil smile:

\- As the representative of the gods who live in Izumo, it is my duty to punish the sacrileges that violate this sacred land. Come all at once, it is unworthy that wisps of hay line up to confront the hurricane.

* * *

Tohsaka Rin had mockingly nicknamed Kishinami "Blank Page", but a virgin spirit is a spirit liberated from any preconceived idea. Kishinami Hakuno learned at an incredible speed and fed on what his friends Rin and Rani explained to her, as well as her fights with her opponents...

But above all she listened to her Servant.

During the seven weeks spent in Seraph, Hakuno had spent more time with Tamamo than with any other Moon Cell's Grail War participant. Behind the closed doors of "My Room" (otherwise known as Class 2-B) she listened to the Kitsune joke, tell anecdotes and even philosophize, sitting cross-legged on a platform-form consisting of school desks that various objects offered by Fujimura Sensei had (roughly) transformed into some sort of imperial throne.

For the most part, the time spent in My Room was just listening to Tamamo talk. Initially, as a "faithful wife", the fox woman had asked her "wonderful husband" many questions. She wanted to know everything about her past, her family, her childhood... that kind of thing. Except that Kishinami Hakuno had amnesia. In fact, she didn't have a past that belonged to her own... During the seven weeks of the Holy Grail War, Hakuno was to discover that she was only an N.P.C. who had escaped control of the Moon Cell.

Having nothing to say, Hakuno listened and retained everything that was said to her. As a sponge absorbing water, she absorbed knowledge.

At that moment, Hakuno was thinking mainly of a story that Caster had told her to pass the time.

* * *

Sitting cross-legged on the platform of tables, between an incense burner and a delicate teapot, Caster waved her ears smiling:

In the ancient times of Spring and Autumn, she said, China was experiencing incessant wars between petty little kings who only wanted to establish their supremacy by force of arms. There were then fierce battles. At that time there lived a king called Zhuang of Zhou. One day, he said to his Prime Minister, "What do you think of the opportunity to attack the kingdom of Yue? His army is weak and the country is badly governed." Do you know what the minister replied, Goshujin-sama? As Hakuno shook her head, Tamamo's smile became blissful, delighted to be able to teach her "husband" an anecdote:

"Majesty, we have just lost two successive wars and handed over several of our provinces to the winners. Is this not proof of the weakness of our troops? Gangs of bandits are destroying two more of our provinces. Is this not proof that we are badly governed? "

This illustrates the words of the great general Sun Tsu " Who has cognized oneself and knows the other, in a hundred fights will not be defeated; he who does not know the other and who does not know himself will always be defeated".

Then Caster abandoned her hieratic posture of great sage and began to laugh. I'm joking, of course, Goshujin-sama this Tamamo does not believe in this philosophical numbo-jumbo, she says.

* * *

But Master Kishinami had listened, retained and integrated the teaching that the minister of Zhou had given to his king two thousand five hundred years earlier. Today she remembered and understood why the Ninjas couldn't win. Accustomed to dominating enemies too terrified and too divided by corruption to fight back, they no longer understood the origin of their past strength, nor did they see their present weaknesses. Above all, they had made the mistake of underestimating Caster... a heroic spirit was the embodiment of the legend of a being who had stood out in the middle of ten thousand... one had to be puffed up with pride to hold her for nothing!

* * *

Minamoto Sezuku watched the fight with his mouth open, under the shock. The Kitsune appeared by the moment and disappeared just as fast. The rest of the time, he only saw a fuzzy shape... She ran like lightning, going from one opponent to another. The techno-ninjas fell one after the other or in small groups.

It wasn't a fight.

One could not even speak of unbalanced confrontation... because even this presupposed that each side had the means to fight back, even in a limited way.

It was a massacre... no, the Kitsune said it was the execution of sacrileges by a representative of the gods of Izumo.

Yet the enemies were informed about the Servants and they knew that their main weakness was their Master.

One of the attackers started running towards the teenager girl with long chocolate-colored hair. He swirled a _Kusari-Gama_ (1). Sezuku wanted to shout, but Kishinami had seen the threat long before him. As she retreated, a fuzzy form manifested itself:

\- To!

Struck under the chin by the two tight fists of the Kitsune, the murderer found himself thrown to the end of the alley.

Ninja corporates were fanatical, willing to sacrifice their lives for their lords and masters. However, despite the cybernetic implants, the drugs and the transformations that had been imposed on them, they remained human.

Facing a monster of legend was beyond their possibility. More than half of them had already perished... the most shaken fled first... and followed a general stampede.

Their leader spread the wings of his flying armor and wanted to flee except...

\- _Curse: Chaos Heaven!_

A whirling wind twister formed around the Power-armor... precipitating it to the ground. As the damaged Power-armor sought to rise, the Kitsune leaped like a furious cat. Her claws plowed the metal into a spark burst, cutting the cables, ripping apart the servomotors. Then the Servant bowed to the chest panel. Sending it to show the door about 20 meters with one hand, she tore the pilot from the cabin with the other:

\- Master, see what I found! So Baka-san (2), you will talk and tell us who wants Hakuno so badly?

As white as a sheet and held at arm's length by the legendary creature, the man of about forty years swallowed. Yet he clearly did not understand the lesson:

\- I would never speak.

\- Never say never, never Baka-san.

* * *

Although impressive, the will of this ordinary human could not be compared to the _Witchcraft_ technique (EX rank) of Tamamo no Mae. Using the _Dakini Heavenly Methods_ she terrorized the poor man by revealing the secrets of his own soul before threatening to lock him in eternal hell.

In normal times, Caster was reluctant to use such means. But as Tamamo herself says, "To attack her adorable husband, it had enough to put the nerves of any loving wife... even more so if she were a divine fox".

* * *

The police car was on the streets of Tokyo.

The two policemen, Minamoto Sezuku and Asano Mihei were in the front, Hakuno and Tomoko were in the back. Of course, Caster accompanied her Master, but did so in spiritual form so as not to attract attention.

Silence reigned since their departure. It was Tomoko who broke it:

\- Kishinami-san, what are your plans?

The teenager turned on her neighbor, tilting her head to the side. The journalist blushed and looked away, inexplicably disturbed.

Planned to do? Hakuno thought for a moment to answer this question and... found no answer. In fact, all the time she was in the Moon Cell, she had thought only of her survival. She wanted to escape the Grail War massacre. All the other participants had come with some sort of big project and intended to use the wish granted by the Moon Cell to realize it.

Unlike them, Hakuno had accidentally arrived in the tournament called "Holy Grail War". For her, winning was the only way out. At first, she was just hoping to be returned to her original body if she survived... no matter what she wished for.

Destiny had been incredibly cruel against her.

She had never had a physical body, or even an existence before the Holy Grail War. Even the Moon Cell thought she was a bug and erased her.

The wish she had finally expressed was forbidding the Moon Cell from any new Grail War. This was her only way of attunement for all the deaths she had caused by seeking to flee the Seraph.

But she was there with Caster... In spite of everything, in spite of the fact that she did not use her wish to escape the deletion, she had survived. Part of her was suffering, finding it unfair that she should live while Shinji, Alice or Rani had died. Hakuno had never heard of survivor syndrome, but that was exactly what made her suffer.

\- Kishinami-san?

Hakuno startled, she had completely forgotten her neighbor. It was not the first time that she immersed herself in deep reflection, forgetting everything around her.

\- Sorry...?

\- You did not reply.

\- I don't know...

Tamamo's answer echoed in her head:

_[First of all, I think we should take care of those who are after you, Goshujin-sama. Those who dare to wrinkle a hair on the head of my lovely husband deserve that I inflict upon them a punishment that will not be forgotten from their descendants to the seventieth generation. The mere sight of a fox will make their grandchildren's grandkids hide under a table! It will become a hereditary disease, the Tamamophobia]_

Hakuno had a tense smile. On the one hand, she was touched by the obvious indignation of Caster. However... how to say... Kishinami now knew her well enough to know it wasn't just talk. The Last Master did not really want to be the cause of a new and bloody chapter of the dark legend of Tamamo no Mae.

Hakuno clears her throat and turns to Tomoko:

\- My Servant thinks that this will have to wait until I am no longer prosecuted.

Let's say it was a less aggressive summary of Tamamo's remarks, even though she heard Caster protesting against this abusive simplification. Tomoko nodded:

\- She is right, of course. I think it is too dangerous to go to the police station. Kimata has corrupted many police officers and he would have no trouble taking you there. He could even do it legally.

Since they captured Suzuki, the leader of the ninjas who attacked them, they knew the identity of the one who wanted to take Hakuno and his reasons.

The girl nodded:

\- Why are you helping me?

Tomoko smiles:

\- Because that's what my grandmother taught me to do. She's been a member of the resistance since childhood. She fought the Harwey with her sister. Then, after World War III, the "good guys" officially won and during the reconstruction the resistance was dissolved. We erected a statue at Tohsaka Rin, the martyr of the resistance, offered seats in the government to her former companions, but we did not win. The conflict is still going on. The Kimata consortium has just replaced the Harwey. Plutocracy is as strong and ruthless as it was before.

Hakuno unintentionally shook her head. She had been with Leonardo B. Harwey and found it hard to believe that his family could be as evil as the woman said. After all, the young king truly wished for the happiness of the world.

However, she was even more interested in a thing what her interlocutor had said:

\- Rin?

The young woman nodded:

\- You knew her, didn't you? You see her in the Seraph?

Hakuno hesitated to answer, but the mention of the Seraph was enough to understand that her interlocutor already knew the essential.

\- What about you? You also know her?

\- I'm not... I'm too young. I was born long after her death. Like all Japanese people, I've seen and read a lot about her. But I know many things that children of my time have not learned in the school curriculum.

\- Because you are part of the resistance?

The journalist appeared surprised, then realized...

\- I am a fool; I have just realized that my last name has never been said before you. I am Tohsaka Tomoko, I am the granddaughter of Tohsaka Sakura, the sister of Rin(3).

* * *

16A Shimakazi Road was a large three story house. The house was a modern circular building with origami-like features in a large grass field and tree orchard. From the residential street, two driveways go down to a garage.

It was there that they were received by the owners of the house. Yamada Kuroe was the head of an electronic components company belonging to the Allied group. The latter was a group of medium and large companies fighting the quasi-monopoly of the Kimata consortium. It was actually the legal branch of resistance.

His wife, Yamada Chihiro, was a cybernetician doctor. She operated casualties and replaced defective limbs and organs with cyber equivalents. Above all, Chihiro treated the wounded resistance fighters during their actions against the World Plutocracy.

Inspector Minamoto, who made the introductions, said:

\- I have known the Yamada for ten years, they are perfectly safe. Kuroe-san is one of my top informants on illegal manipulations made in the darkest corners of the Cyberworld.

Led by the master of the house, proud of his great home, they visited the place. The house features four bedrooms, a basement workshop and garage, a large office, and an interior courtyard.

The workshop was a large unfinished section of the house with benches where electronics parts and equipment were crammed. Yamada Chihiro pushed a hidden button behind a worktable and a secret panel opened.

\- This is the safehouse. This room has power, water, and communications with standard datajack access. It is lightly shielded from sensor and heavily soundproofed. A blowout panel provides an emergency escape route.

The factory manager's wife smiles at Hakuno:

\- Normally, you can live as you please in the house. My husband and I often receive visits and no one cares to see unfamiliar faces. However, if the doorbell rings, you will have to hide here.

They went up to the first floor, crossed the central circular courtyard and entered the living room. There they sat on the sofa and on the chairs between the wall-sized video screen and the central holographic projector.

While Chihiro was serving drinks to the guests, her husband leaned towards Minamoto Sezuku:

\- I'm not going to ask why I have to hide Kishinami-chan, but I suppose it has something to do with Kimata.

As the police inspector nodded, the head of the company rubbed his chin while thinking.

\- I discovered something unusual while surfing the dark Cyberworld. Have you ever heard of the Virtual Pleasure Company?

Sezuku replied immediately:

\- A subsidiary of Kimata that offers virtual games in the Cyberworld... officially nothing very illegal. But it's a portal to access other... less legal hobbies.

The police inspector glanced at Kishinami Hakuno, the teenager innocently drank a glass of soda that had just been brought to her by Chihiro. He did not dare to list the virtual "games" practiced in the dark Cyberworld. One could find more than shocking content...

Yamada Kuroe went on:

\- Well, those are pretty innocent hobbies compared to what I found out. I discovered that members of high society who take advantage of the illegal services of the Virtual Pleasure Company could be offered even more... degenerated services in the real world.

Minamoto Sezuku cut it:

\- And they will meet in three days at an illegal club of the port.

Kuroe appeared surprise:

\- You already know!

\- But I thank you for this information, Yamada-san, which confirms the information learned by... a friend of Kishinami-san.

Caster, invisible in his spiritual form, replied to Hakuno's ears alone:

_[They have been investigating for years and yet I am giving them best information, when I arrived yesterday. Humans are really pathetic... apart from you of course, my little starry eyes Master.]_

Kishinami clears her voice:

\- I can help...

As the adults turned to her, surprised, she looked down. Hakuno really hated being the center of attention.

\- I... I am a hacker...

The mental voice of her Servant echoed in their bond:

_[And the best in the world, able to force the protections of the Moon Cell itself.]_

Detective Minamoto reflects for a moment, exchanging a look with his ex-wife. Tomoko beckoned him to accept... after all, given what she had taught him about the Seraph and the Moon Cell, if Kishinami-san had really survived in this virtual universe, she had to be competent. Moreover, the teenage girl was already Kimata's target. She could not put herself in any more danger than she already was.

\- Okay, I'll investigate in the real world. You can try in the Cyberworld Hakuno-chan.

The Victor of the Moon nodded.

* * *

The safehouse was a large circular room that did not appear on the plans of the Yamada house. Having asked to be left alone, Hakuno lay down on one of the beds and grabbed the virtual headset. She didn't have data jack, but she didn't need it:

\- _Code Cast: Hack!_

Immediately, the sensation of lying in bed faded. Her spirit, sucked into the Cyberworld materialized in a "piece" resembling a pattern made of wire, except for the fact that it was made up of sparked energy lines.

Not surprisingly, Hakuno realized that her avatar wore the brown uniform of the Tsukumihara academy with black turtleneck and pantyhose. By reflex, she plunged her hand into her pocket and found her _Portable Terminal_ there. It was only then the small device, both similar to a portable microcomputer and a smartphone, was in her palm that she realized that everything acquired in the Seraph had followed her into her new life. Not only did she still have the _Portable Terminal_, but the equipment tab revealed a long collection of _Formal Wears_ collected during the Grail War while more than 260,000 PT were accumulating on her virtual wallet.

\- Goshujin-sama!

A whirlwind of crystal cubes and purple digital particles formed her Servant who immediately threw her arms about the neck of Hakuno

\- Cas... Caster!

\- Your humble wife is begging her beloved Master not to leave her behind. Exploring the cyberworld could be very dangerous.

But Hakuno kept looking at her bug-eyed:

\- How did you follow me?

The Kitsune laughed, hiding her mouth behind the back of her hand:

\- Goshujin-sama, I am a Servant created by the Moon Cell from the real Tamamo no Mae. I only existed in the virtual universe of Seraph... at least until my adorable Master used one of her command marks to give me a material body made of _Prana_. But I haven't lost my ability to move around in the virtual universe. Just as I can pass from a material body to a spiritual body, I am able to transform myself into spiritrons and enter the Cyberworld with you.

In turn, Hakuno clutched her Servant in her arms. The gesture was clumsy but reflected a deep tenderness:

\- I'm so glad you're here with me.

The fox woman's reaction was most remarkable. She blushed and began to speak in a clashing manner...an almost incomprehensible murmur "Be strong Tamamo, resist temptation".

\- Tamamo?

Coughing in her fist, the Kitsune succeeds with a heroic effort to take hold and not to throw herself on her Master (but Hakuno was **SO** adorable...):

\- This Tamamo no Mae lives only to serve her wonderful husband, nothing can separate us. Even the Moon Cell did not succeed!

Smiling, Hakuno drew two _Formal Wears_ from the equipment menu of her _Portable Terminal_. The first, _Scapegoat charm_ was an amulet that can help divert disaster by taking the place of the user. It can be used to use "gain-con (32)" a Code Cast that greatly raises Servant's defense. The second was the _Seer's Crystal Ball_, a crystal ball the size of a softball that radiates an ominous light. This Formal Wear serves to cast "View-map ( )", in the Seraph, that Code Cast display completed area map.

\- _Code Cast: View-map ( )!_

Nevertheless, the image that appeared in the crystal ball was infinitely more complex than a level of the Chimerics Lunar Seas arena. After all, the Cyberworld was a global communications network that connected its users individually.

"View-map" only allowed seeing their immediate environment and it was already an incredibly dense succession of passages connecting… _a_ _Reality Marble_.

Hakuno remembered a discussion she had had with Leonard B. Harwey during the first week of the Grail War. The young king had explained that the Harwey group, using a supercomputer, had succeeded in creating a _Reality Marble_ that had lasted several minutes.

Sixty years later, humanity had made enormous progress. Without Gaia or Alaya to erode these pocket universes, and probably also because they were confined to the virtual world, hundreds of _Reality Marble_ had to coexist on the planet!

The symbols that appeared in the crystal ball were the ones she already knew. For example this red square had to indicate an _enemy program_ or at least an equivalent. And... this green one!

\- Caster, come with me, I have discovered something interesting.

The passage of wire ended in another piece forming a crossroads. In its middle shone a fountain of green light. She knew this installation well... a fountain regenerating _prana_ and the vitality of the Servant as well as the Master!

Their whole environment was modeled on the Seraph! Perhaps the origin of one of the names of this strange virtual universe: the Cyberworld.

Why? How?

One thing was certain; it solved much of their problems. As Hakuno plunged her hand into the pond to activate it, Tamamo started dancing on the spot, swirling on herself, splashed by a shower of green light:

\- My cute Master, your Tamamo is at 100%!

Hakuno smiled at the joy of his Servant. However, her expression became neutral as she returned to the observation of the crystal ball. Once again, Master and Servant were embarking on the exploration of a virtual arena. They now had to discover an access of the Virtual Pleasure Company leading to the Dark Cyberworld.

* * *

(1) Typical ninja weapon, it's the combination of a chain, with a weight on one end and a sickle weapon on the other.

(2) Mister moron (literally)

(3) In Fate/ Extra Matou Shinji don't have a little sister. In the Extraverse, Sakura was not adopted into the Matou family.

* * *

**Author Note: You want me to tell you, after this chapter, Kimata Ryuchi will start to worry. Nobody gets away untouched after attacking Hakuno in front of Tamamo... There are less dangerous extreme sports: snorkeling in a cage filled with hungry big sharks, lava surfing, parachute jumping (without a parachute, but with an anvil).**

* * *

**Beta Note **Sawtooth44: funny thing if i recall correctly Extra-verse Rin is actually the daughter or granddaughter of Stay Night Rin as she said her avatar takes on their appearance making her technically Rin Tohsaka II, ied have to replay the game to remember properly so don't quote me on that


	6. Chapter 6 Digital Cult

**Edit: 28/03/2020**

* * *

**Boyzilla: Yes, Hakuno is really cute, BUT corrupt CEOs and politicians are the only humans immunized to her cuteness!**

**Exactly, the Master of the Holy Grail War connected to the Moon Cell using the worlds network... because the Moon Cell invaded the human cyberworld to invite the Spiritron Hackers to participate in its trial.**

**Indeed, humanity has succeeded in making great progress in the field of photonic crystals. And you can see it in this chapter.**

**It is certain that Hakuno is more than capable of forcing ordinary computer security... nevertheless, Kimata has no ordinary computer security. In addition, now that Hakuno has a body, she is vulnerable to feedback and may end up with her brain fried by anti-intrusion defenses. The little squirrel has lost the advantage she had in the Seraph.**

**Akasha Bloodriver: Yes, everybody loves Tamamo, she is funny, eccentric, and enthusiastic and she is a pretty fox woman. With Hakuno, they make an adorable duo. However, we must never forget that Tamamo's alignment is "Neutral Evil"... she is very selfish... fortunately, Hakuno is there! And yes... without Hakuno, our favorite fox would have cursed Kimata for a hundred generations...**

* * *

**Author Note: Until now, this fan-fic didn't really have to be classified "crossover". Until now... because the great Cthulhu will wake up "_Iä, Iä, Cthulhu fhtagn"_**... **and you will see it. Don't be shy... come with me.**

* * *

**Digital Cult**

* * *

Aided by _Seer's Crystal Ball_, Hakuno managed to navigate into the huge maze of the Cyberworld. Always accompanied by Tamamo no Mae, she had just reached a _Reality Marble_ housing virtual buildings. There were companies, such as a virtual tour operator proposing the exploration of simulation of distant planets or branches of digital banks.

All around Kishinami Hakuno and Tamamo no Mae, a large crowd came and went. Upon entering, the Master had initially feared that her Servant would attract attention... except that the avatars of the virtual world travelers had left him speechless for a moment... a feat given what she had experienced in the Seraph.

Each connected had customized his avatar to make it as original as possible: an elf with pointed ears, a caveman in animal skin, various robots, fantastic creatures, even a knight in armor... not to mention what the survivor of the Moon Cell was unable to identify for they lack knowledge of popular culture.

Of course, in this crowd where everything and anything was mixed up, a teenager in school uniform and a kitsune went completely unnoticed.

Avoiding the crowds, Hakuno used her _Portal Terminal_ to connect to the information network.

While Tamamo stood in protection beside her, she focused. The virtual world was huge and as in the real world, the communication system was parasitized by incessant waves of aggressive and intrusive advertising. She had to avoid several forced connections on paid sites... one of them being... let's say that Hakuno blushed violently when she saw the homepage... the protection of minors left much to be desired in the virtual world.

Finally, after various setbacks, Kishinami discovered access to the Virtual Pleasure Company. She disconnected and turned to the Kitsune:

\- Tamamo?

\- Yes, Goshujin-sama? Is everything okay?

The fox woman was waving her ears; obviously her difficulties had not escaped her, her discomfort in particular.

Hakuno blushes again:

\- Connection error... but I found what we were looking for. The Virtual Pleasure Company is hosted by a supercomputer on the west coast of America... in California.

At the mention of a "connection error" Tamamo laid his ears, sign of anger or depression, but her eyes were throwing flames as she turned one side or the other to look at the illuminated advertisements for the various virtual establishments established in this _Reality Marble_. A good quarter offered prohibited services for those under 18 years.

She suddenly took Hakuno in her arms, hugging her tightly:

\- Hiiii! Goshujin-sama, they will have to pass on my body to harm your innocence! Out of question of letting someone deprive me of...

Caster suddenly stopped and released her Master before coughing elegantly:

\- Ufu-ufu, I just wanted to say that my Master can count on me to defend her.

Blinking, Hakuno bowed his head adorably to the side, without really understanding...

* * *

Although the cyberworld presents the appearance of "cities" with its buildings and streets planted with trees, using a door could take an avatar through thousands of kilometers. However, most users of these services did not realize...

\- _Code Cast: View_status!_

Except Hakuno wasn't just anybody.

Access to the Virtual Pleasure Company looked like an ordinary door. However, the Spiritron Hacker discovered that it was, in fact, a symbolic passage connected to another continent. Tamamo and Hakuno were already aboard a communication satellite in geostationary orbit.

\- Caster, do you think we should enter their site as simple users or hackers their system?

Tamamo hardly took the time to reflect:

\- We will not learn anything by connecting normally. Inspector Minamoto said that their most special services were reserved for their richest and most loyal customers.

The fox woman smiles widely:

\- In any case, I do not believe that the computer defenses of this shady company can withstand even a moment of my cuuuuuute Master with starry eyes.

Accustomed to the exaggerated compliments of her Servant, Hakuno simply nodded before taking on a determined air:

\- _Code Cast: Hack (16)_

The door was surrounded by yellowish lightning and suddenly the reality around them changed. The buildings, the virtual hostesses, the trees were gone. Everything had been replaced by a more sober decor consisting of energy lines and multi-colored icons defining a kind of room.

Once again, the Hakuno Code Cast "View_status" could get an idea of the complex data network surrounding it. As Minamoto Sezuku explained to them, the Virtual Pleasure Company was only a legal screen for illegal practices... Hidden under the first network was a second one giving access to the Dark Cyberworld. The titles of the icons... The teenager swallowed and then blushed, trying not to think about their meaning. There was a new firewall, much more powerful than the previous one.

Hakuno exchanged two of her _Formal Wears_, replacing _Seer's Crystal Ball_ which she no longer needed for _Shokwave_32._ Kishinami wielded the sword:

\- _Code Cast: relase_mgi (a)_

A white fireball appeared from the blade; hitting the wall of icons it simultaneously neutralized all defenses.

Arriving at the heart of the data of the Virtual Pleasure Company, Hakuno visited a place practically devoid of scenery. However, the data flow was thicker than anywhere else. Where can she find something interesting?

The teenage girl headed for the memory zone corresponding to the countless surveillance cameras protecting the premises of this subsidiary of the Kimata consortium in the real world. In California, it was dark. Apart from two guards, the place was empty. One of them was connected directly to the system by his datajack. His avatar had to walk nearby. It would be better to avoid him so as not to have to fight him... and above all to avoid triggering the alarm.

Kishinami retreated and returned to the illegal games. Without worrying about the content, the Master used "View_status" again to get an idea of the architecture of the system. She discovers connections for holographic cameras and complex analysis and "translation" systems between the real world and the virtual world. The teen Master frowned:

\- Caster, there is something strange. Virtual games take place in their own _Reality Marble_. And the software used to create the virtual model of users allows shaping of their avatars to their actual bodies. The body created is thus made of spiritrons, like yours or that of the Masters in the Seraph. The technology is far too advanced compared to the rest of Cyberworld.

Tamamo had approached, also surprised:

\- The Moon Cell?

Busy following the track, Hakuno went up the data stream and then shook her head:

\- No, the source is on Earth, also in California. It's another subsidiary of Kimata. Photonic Crystal Technology Inc.

Hakuno is thinking for a moment. Sixty years ago, Leo told her that by mobilizing all the means of the Harwey Conglomerate his family had barely managed to create a Photonic Crystal the size of the thumbnail. Obviously, humanity had made great strides. Not that it pleases her... this knowledge was so badly used. Her intuition, sharpened by weeks of fighting where the slightest error was fatal, sounded like an alarm bell in her mind.

Why would we use such advanced technologies just for games? Even though they were illegal games... Hakuno shook her head. She presented that this was not the goal in itself. There must have been something more important behind it.

A buzzer startled the girl. It came from her _Portable Terminal_. Opening the Matrix tab, marked with the "new" icon, Kishinami blinked. The list of Servants defeated in the Moon Cell had disappeared. In addition to the line describing her Servant, there was only one line left: "? ? ? " As she opened this tab, Hakuno discovered a photo entitled "Master: Kimata Ryuchi". The fearsome CEO was represented next to a grey figure: "Servant:? ? ?".

The indication "Matrix 0" had just passed to "1". Her reflections and the brief dialogue with Tamamo were inscribed below. The parallel with the Seraph Holy Grail War twisted her stomach with anxiety even though she wanted to vomit. What did it mean? Only the Moon Cell could update the _Portable Terminal_!

\- Goshujin-sama?!

As Tamamo no Mae held her "husband" in her arms, her face tense with anxiety, Hakuno had a pale smile:

\- I'm fine, Caster.

Concentrating, she began to trace the flow of data back to the headquarters of P.C.T. Inc

* * *

Again, Hakuno's panoply of Codes Cast allowed her to cross the Firewalls and defenses of another Kimata subsidiary. The _Portable Terminal_ was displaying the data she had hacked.

Officially, P.C.T. Inc. manufactured supercomputers in Photonics Crystals. They were used by scientists, weather services, volcanologists and the armies of the various countries of the world who needed supercomputers to carry out the billions of calculations necessary for their work.

Evolving in the midst of the learning programs intended for these "little brothers" of the Moon Cell, Hakuno was fascinated by the sceneries that appeared before her: walls of equations, reconstitution of historical events. She finally arrived in an even more protected area.

This attracted Kishinami because she found this area was managed by a specific memory zone. Hakuno was surprised by the knowledge taught by educational programs. Even if she was only a pseudo-magus, given her poor understanding of _magecraft_ only to her recognition as a Master by the Moon Cell, she had frequented Tamamo no Mae long enough to recognize a grimoire of witchcraft.

But it was in a language that seemed to her to be Arabic. Its tight, leaning handwriting gave an impression of incoherence and madness... even in the eyes of someone who could not read it.

The Victor of the Moon turned to her Servant and with one whispered spell. Immediately, a translated version of the text was superimposed on the original.

* * *

_The Old-Ones were, are and will be._

_From the dark stars, they came where man was born, invisible and impure. They descended on the primitive Earth._

_Below the oceans, they hatched over the ages, until the seas retreated. Then they swarmed, and in this multitude began to reign over the earth._

_On the icy poles, they built powerful cities and on the heights, the temples of those whom nature does not recognize and whom the gods have cursed._

After an illustration showing an abominable, humanoid monster, with a sort of tentacle beard and bat wings, perched on a monolith, the text resumed:

_And their offspring invaded the earth, and their children suffered through the ages. They built the huts of Leng with their hands, and the terrifying entities that remained in the vaults of Zin recognize them as their gods. They spawned the Ha-hag and the Dark Entities that reign over the Night. The Great Cthulhu is their brother, the Shaggot-haired their slaves. The Dhols pay tribute to them in the Pnoth Valley and the atrocious Gugs sing their praises under the peaks of ancient Throk. They walked among the stars and traveled the earth. The city of Irem in the great wilderness knew them; Leng saw them pass through the icy desert, and the ageless citadel stood on the heights crowned with clouds of Kadath. The unknown bears their mark. The Old-Ones have avidly walked the paths of darkness and their blasphemies have flooded the earth; the whole creation has bowed before their power and recognized their perversity. And the older gods opened their eyes and saw the abominations of those who ravaged the earth. In their wrath, they stood up against the Old-Ones, who remained in their injustice, and cast them out of the Earth into the emptiness and spaces where chaos reigns and which shelter no form. And the older gods put their emblem on the Great Gate, and the Old Ones could do nothing against its power._

_Then the dreadful Cthulhu sprang up from the depths and became furious at the Guardians of the Earth. And they bound his poisonous claws with powerful imprecations and locked him in the city of R'lyeh and buried under the waves, he would sleep and dream of death until the end of time._

_And behind this Gate now lives the Old-Ones; not in spaces known to men, but in the spaces that separate them. Out of the earthly spheres, they wander and still wait for the moment of return. For the Earth has known them, and knows them forever. These Old-Ones consider their masters as Azathoth, the formless fool, and dwell with him in the black cave which is at the center of the infinite. It is there that it devours voraciously, in total chaos, in the midst of insane beats of hidden drums, the discordant sound of horrible flutes and the incessant howls of blind and stupid gods who drag and gesticulate without purpose for eternity. The soul of Azathoth is in Yog-Sothoth and will signal to the Old-Ones when the stars indicate that the time of return has come. For Yog-Sothoth is the Gate through which worlds converge. Yog-Sothoth knows the mazes of time because time is One to him. He knows where the Old Ones came out, back in time, and where they'll come out when the cycle starts again._

_After the day comes night. Men's time will pass and they will return to where they came from. Then you will know that they were unspeakable impurities, and cursed, they will have defiled the earth._

* * *

\- _Al-Azif_!

The horrified exclamation of Tamamo worried Hakuno who looked at her with her big brown and interrogative eyes. The magical fox-girl was nervously pounding her tail with her ears down. She hesitated for a moment before specifying:

\- _Al-Azif _is a book written in Duriak, a language of northern Iraq. Its name is more or less translated as "The murmur of demons". _Al-Azif_ is, in fact, a wind that sometimes groans in the deserts of Arabia near the lost city of Irem. This breath carries whispers of demons. As for the author, he is a mad sorcerer named Abdul Alhazred. We know more about this book by its title in Greek, "_Necronomicon_", that is, "The Book of Dead Names". Goshujin-sama, your humble wife asks you in the name of all the love she has for you not to seek to know more. The author of this accursed book was devoured in full days by hideous creatures! Reading this book brings nothing but madness, horror... death! The text is a blasphemous compilation of the darkest and most inhuman arcane of Witchcraft.

Once again, the _Portable Terminal_ rang.

New: Matrix update.

Matrix rank 1 to rank 2

Matrix 2 Rank: Myth of Cthulhu.

* * *

The Last Master was, of course, concerned about the computer receiving such knowledge and especially about the reason why a photonic computer was programmed with the knowledge of black magic books. Through the cameras of the complex, Hakuno discovered an isolated room, not even appearing on the official plans of the complex.

There, under glass bells were six large photonic crystals cubes, the size of a human head.

Five of them were still in a stammering state, the computer equivalent of early childhood... The sixth was the photonic brain educated in the knowledge of dark magic. The most frightening thing was to see that the room had been stretched out of dark draperies embroidered with mystical seals and that the bases of the photonic computers were located at the points of a vast star inscribed in a double magic circle.

\- Goshujin-sama, this magic circle has strange similarities with the Holy Grail of Fuyuki. You can't read the inscriptions, because it's arcane language. But I can. Each photonic crystal base is surrounded in its own magic circle. See the inscription here?

Tamamo stretched a claw to a point of the six-pointed star:

\- It is written "Archer". And here?

She designated a second point:

\- "Lancer". And the following: "Rider", then "Berserker", "Caster", "Assassin". All that is needed is "Saber" for us to have the seven classical classes.

Hakuno was watching her Servant. The fox woman had her arms crossed, rubbing her chin, the very image of a person thinking intensely. Her ears and tail were shaking nervously.

\- I think Kimata is trying to create his own Grail War. A simplified version... of all the "containers" of heroic spirit, Saber is the most expensive to create, so he dispensed with it. With the use of photonic crystals, a classic magic circle, the system looks like a hybrid of Fuyuki and Seraph.

Hakuno tilted her head to the side:

\- Why?

Accustomed to her "husband", Tamamo perfectly understood her question:

\- For a wish, Master, what else?

It was Hakuno's turn to think seriously. She had arrived here following a connection with the Virtual Pleasure Company. This company used Moon Cell technology... or at least a good copy. The result? A _Reality Marble_ used for games, certainly illegal, but games.

Kishinami was nothing like the CEO of a large company like Kimata, but it was clear that technological and financial investment had to be gigantic, compared to the ridiculousness of the objective.

Handheld _Portable Terminal_, Hakuno verified that this was the first clue in the Matrix tab.

However, P.C.T. Inc. was not content with _Reality Marbles_ and the technology of avatars made of spiritrons; they were also working to build their own Grail. Since the two projects were linked, she discovered the second by following the clues in the first, the deduction was obvious. The _Reality Marble_ would serve as an arena like the Seraph's Seven Chimeric Lunars Seas during the Grail War of the Moon Cell.

Using "View_status" Hakuno spotted the photonic crystal that was learning elements of Cthulhu's cult. It was the Caster of this strange Grail War. Logic, who could be interested in Witchcraft besides the Service Spell Thrower?

Since the creation of her Servant was more advanced, Kimata Ryuchi seemed willing to get ahead of the other Masters.

Hakuno frowned and said:

\- Caster, how does the Moon Cell embody a heroic spirit in a Servant?

The fox also looked at the photonic crystals identified as Servants of the Grail War and must have understood where her Master was going.

\- In one of the Fuyuki Grail Wars, to summon a specific servant from the Throne of Heroes, a catalyst was needed. But in the Moon Cell, we don't use a link object. To embody a _Saint Graph_ in a spiritron body, the Moon Cell constitutes it from the available information. They are the equivalent of the catalyst for calling a heroic spirit from the Throne. The advantage of this system is that the Moon Cell has transformed the Seraph into a "pseudo-Throne". All the Servants whom he has succeeded in summoning (1) can be recalled at will, even if they have been destroyed and they even keep the memory of what they have experienced since their first invocation in the Seraph. So this "Blue Caster" before you, Goshujin-sama, is unique. I am not a simple copy of the hero present in the throne because, unlike her, I met my beautiful husband.

Without noting the compliment, Hakuno continued:

\- And Kimata reproduced this system?

Although somewhat sullen, Tamamo no Mae returned to the contemplation of the screen:

\- Yes, Goshujin-sama, each photonic crystal brain must be responsible for recreating the personality, appearance, and powers of a Servant in the virtual world. Six servants, therefore, we are far from the 128 that the Moon Cell had assembled in the first round of its own war.

Hakuno stood still thinking for a moment, and didn't pay much attention to the notification ringing of his Portable Terminal. She knew without having to open it that the Matrix had just passed to rank 3. Because she knew who the Servant was that Kimata wanted to invoke, it was obvious...

\- What if I disrupt brain learning?

The question left Tamamo a bit perplexed. But she thinks seriously about it:

\- Well, you will get an _alteration of the Saint Graph_. Generally, this leads a Servant to be summoned in a different class... except that, in this war, classes are determined before invocation. It is likely that any alteration of the teaching program would modify the _Saint Graph_ enough for the system to be forced to fall back on a substitute. Is that what you want to do?

Hakuno agreed to that.

\- But why?

\- Because Kimata wants to invoke Abdul Alhazred. You said that the _Necronomicon_ was a horrible book, the one who wrote it must be just as much.

The _Portable Terminal_ rang again. The Matrix had just passed to E.

* * *

_\- Code Cast: Hack(16)_

The Code Cast surrounded the program in yellow lightning, blocking its operation. During the brief moment when it stopped functioning, Hakuno slipped inside the crystal cube. Her instinctive knowledge of Moon Cell technology helped her enormously... especially since she was faced with a copy of inferior quality. She crossed the barriers and defused the traps. The girl was now in a whirlwind of programs created to emulate Abdul Alhazred's _Saint Graph_. The Last Master was unleashed, destroying knowledge, changing dates, changing places.

Obviously, this aggressive intrusion could not go unnoticed.

A whirlwind of purple particle data formed in front of them forming an _enemy_program_. However, none of those the duo had faced in the Seraph. It looked like a cubist version of a bulldog. In fact, the data envelope she read allowed her to understand that these programs were called _Watchdog_ defense programs.

_[Break]_

The mental order was immediately followed by effect. Leaping forward, Tamamo shattered the energy shield erected by the Watchdog by striking it with her two fists:

\- To!

_[Attack]_

\- Yiahhh!

Tamamo's mirror mowed down the monster that wanted to leap.

_[Guard]_

\- Nano!

Raised like a shield, the mirror blocked the sawtooth jaws of the digital monster. Having passed a perfect sequence, Tamamo ub\nlocked an additional attack. Jumping over the _enemy_program_, she struck it on the skull with her two hands like a hammer:

\- To!

As the _enemy_program_ took exactly the same Guard/ Break/ Attack scheme with stubbornness worthy of a simple program, Caster chained it a second time. Finally, the Watchdog collapsed to the ground... before returning to the state of digital particles.

Hakuno looked at all the locked icons around her, and the red light that now bathed the virtual universe:

\- We must leave, the alarm has been set.

Setting an example, Hakuno was already running, her hair braided so much on her shoulders. Tamamo caught up with her, much faster.

* * *

(1) Except for Acueid Brunedestrud.

(2) FGO uses a similar invocation system.

* * *

**Note from the author: of course, as you have understood, the invocation of Kimata Ryuchi will result in... Bluebearb. I think the CEO is gonna be mad at Hakuno... no, you want to summon the greatest sorcerer of the Cthulhu Myth and instead... yes... THAT! Never piss off a hacker if you have an important thing to do with a computer. There will be five other summons of servants: "Archer"; "Lancer"; "Rider"; "Berserker"; "Assassin". And I have not yet decided on my choice. If you feel like it... provide me with evil, dark canon "heroes" or simply in their place in an atmosphere of Lovecraft's horror.**

**The most attentive ones may have noticed a contradiction between the first episodes and this one... (I don't say what, look). Well, it's not the author's fault... the contradiction is only apparent. Let's just say that Hakuno did not notice an absurdity about the invocation ritual... yet Tamamo is there to demonstrate that it is not so absurd. Reflect about it, if you think you found this contradiction, tell me.**

**Beta Note**

Sawtooth44: Sorry about the late edits, got distracted by XCOM although funny thing about Abdul Alhazred, someone made a fan servant of him and Chaldea specifically tells you to BURN HIM rather then keep him around, a broken link is provided

r/ grandorder/ comments/ cvn70q/fgo_sprite_edit_that_is_not_dead_which_can/


	7. Chapter 7 (Un)holy Grail War

**Ptl: indeed, Kimata ignores all non-standard classes (apart from Avenger since it was used during the Third Fuyuki Grail War... I suppose). Why this question? In any case, the invocation system does not allow them to be invoked.**

**Akasha Bloodriver: Camilla? Yes, excellent suggestion. Kimata is not a Spiritron-Hacker... it's an eldritch witch!**

**Boyzilla: Tamamo will protect our adorable Hakuno from anything that could harm her virtue (note: except Tamamo herself). Information is dangerous but Moon Cell "babies" made by Kimata and his allies cannot be compared to the original. Each of them is capable of supporting only one servant.**

* * *

**(Un)holy Grail War**

* * *

The virtual universe of Cyberworld was a kind of 3D maze similar to a wire model. The corridors cut and intersected endlessly, uniting the hundreds of _Reality Marble_s created by the supercomputers that organized global communications.

In one of these corridors was a teenage girl with long brown hair, wearing a school uniform. She was followed by a pink-haired kitsune.

Both women were fleeing the wrath of one of the Cyberworld masters. And its ire manifested itself by the appearance of _Enemy Programs_ which never ceased to materialize near them.  
Tamamo no Mae was powerful but she simply could not hope to overcome the waves of opponents that appeared almost without dead time.

Once again three vortices of data particles formed in front of Hakuno. Tamamo leaped to intervene.  
Kishinami Hakuno had met this kind of _Enemy Programs_ several times and identified at a glance their types: two humanoid _Cybercops_ formed of colored prisms for a head, trunk and limbs... floating without touching each other, and a _Corkscrew_ actually resembling this tool with a kind of head and two arms, all jumping on a wide spring. Barely materialized, it was already getting ready to jump... he was going to run a _Break_!

_[Attack]_

Hearing the mental order of her Master, Caster swirled over herself with the grace of a ballerina. At the same time, with her hand, she guided her circular mirror:

\- Yiehhh!

Struck by the disc used as a weapon, the _Corkscrew_ found itself violently pushed back, reeling. Already, the _Cybercops_ were attacking Caster, one on each flank. Hakuno focused:

-_ Code Cast: Gain_Con (32)_.

A column of blue and violet particles bursts under the feet of Tamamo. This Code Cast allowed increasing the resistance of a Servant.

_[Guard]_

The mirror transformed into a shield, the magical fox-girl intercepted the arm as sharp as a sword of one of the _Cybercops_ before counterattacking with a kick that hit the opponent in the chest, projecting it at a distance:

\- Teeee!

_[Guard]_

The parade of the second attack looked like the first, but Tamamo counterattacked by scratching the opponent at the head:

\- Nano!

Their three opponents were already straightening themselves out. All affected, but not enough to stop them...

_[Skill]_

Caster stretched out her palm arm and a circle of ofudas began to swirl around her hand. It was as if the fox woman had held a flame-thrower. Wrapped in the fire, the two _Cybercops_ collapsed into a cluster of broken prisms before dissolving into purple data particles. The _Corkscrew_ partially blocked the attack by raising a shield formed by translucent octagons forming an iridescent half-sphere.

_[Break]_

Caster leaps high, falling back on the _Enemy Program_ with both hands attached above the head to form a hammer. The shield flew in a burst, the _Corkscrew_ clad to the ground loosed in turn in data particles.  
The fight was over... for now...

With her hands on her thighs, leaning forward, Hakuno gasped. Drops of sweat ran down her nose and hung on her eyelashes. The young Master did not need to consult his _Personal Terminal_ to know that his _prana_ was at a very low level.

She had never been subjected to such a trial in the Seraph. Kishinami finally understood that the Chimeric Lunar Seas were just training for Masters and Servants. _Enemy Programs_ attacked one by one and patrolled a specific location. It was usually easy to avoid them. There, nothing like this... the digital creatures were chasing her. Yes, they were chasing her, because, unlike the Moon Cell programs, they considered her a target, not just attacking Tamamo.

[Goshujin-sama! ]

Caster's mental call forced Hakuno to return to the present... her bad habit of thinking too much risked costing her life. The Cyberworld had become a very dangerous place for her. You shouldn't let your guard down for a moment. Her Servant showed her swirls of data particles forming... a dozen _Cybercops_ materialized!

Hakuno reached out to reveal a sword, a _Formal Wear_ called _Shockwave_ (32):_

\- _Code Cast: Release_mgi(a)!_

As the Tsukumihara Academy teenage girl in brown uniform shot down the blade, a blue-white fireball popped up to hit the group of enemies. They all found themselves wrapped in yellow lightning and stopped. Simultaneously, Kishinami gave an order to her Servant:

_[Skill]_

Tamamo no Mae leaped high, her hands clasping a glittering ice ball that she threw to their opponents:

\- Gods of Izumo curse the desecraters!

The ice sphere exploded and frozen the entire group of enemies.

[Quickly, Goshujin-sama, we must resume our flight before others arrive!]

Hakuno started running again, following the map from her _Portable Terminal_.

* * *

Taking off the contact helmet, Hakuno stood up to sit on the bed. Her eyes passed through the cache in the basement of the Yamada house. Yeah, she was back in the real world... escaping the Cyberworld after hours of chasing. Kishinami felt completely exhausted... flat. The girl passed her hands over her eyes and then massaged her temples.

\- Heaven me! My Perfect-o-meter is broken!

Kishinami looked at her Servant's exaggerated pantomime and frowned. Tamamo had just pulled a strange device from her tail (she seemed able to store a lot of the weirdest objects in her foxtail) and looked at it one hand on the cheek with a theatrical expression of stupor. She then jumped to Hakuno's neck to rub herself against her Master who mechanically closed her arms on her shoulders.  
\- Goshujin-sama this Tamamo no Mae can no longer count the number of perfect decisions her beloved Master has made in recent battles. Kishinami Hakuno is - after all- The Victor of the Moon, winner of the Seraph Holy Grail War. In war... and in love... no one can overcome her.

Releasing Hakuno, Caster touched her tail to bring out a pendant similar to a silver mask:

\- This is a small reward, a sacred Tibetan mask. It is a very old _Mythical Code_ that I acquired in the Yarlung era. It belonged to the king of Tibet Songsten Gampo. It has two permanent capacities. The first is that the wearer cannot be detected. More interestingly, it immunizes against possession and all the control spells... finally... about...

Tamamo pouted before sighing:

\- It is a powerful _Mythical Code_, but it was created by humans. It is totally ineffective against True Magic, or high-level _magecraft _such as the runes of Cù Chulainn or a spell of a Caster class Servant.

As the kitsune passed her the chain of silver links around her head, Hakuno looked at the tail of the Servant who was pounding with excitement:

\- How can you put so much in your tail?

Hakuno remembered what Tamamo told her. When she still had her nine tails, she could raise armies from her tails, or destroy countries from one movement.

Caster took two steps back and swirled on herself before grabbing her foxtail and hugging it against her chest, caressing her with one hand, red mark on her cheeks:

\- Heaven me! Goshujin-sama! What an intimate question! There... there are some questions that should not be asked outside the marital bed.

Hakuno tilts her head with a sorry face. The teen girl understood that she had just asked a question... uh... the answer to which had to be censored for the under-eighteen. But didn't understand the connection with... uh... you get it!

However, Hakuno was so adorable when she leaned her head that she almost caused a catastrophe.  
\- Take back Tamamo... resists... resists...

The fox woman trembled from the feet to the head, the ears quivering and the eyes... were replaced by pink hearts?!

Kishinami looked at her Servant with a little concern, then her _Command Spell_. If Caster completely lost her mind, only using one of the two remaining a _Command Mark_ could avoid the worst:

\- Tamamo?

The kitsune shook her head and slapped each of her cheeks. Then, her eyes returning to normal, she coughed with elegance by masking her mouth with the back of her hand:

\- Ufu-ufu... we were talking about my tail... once I had nine. I was a hundred times more powerful than I am now.

\- Yes, I remember you telling me.

Caster smiles widely:

\- That is the wonderful thing about you, my husband, you listen to everything I say and you never forget anything. Few people can defend themselves from being the object of such complete attention. It's flattering, you know, goshujin-sama.

\- Why don't you have your other tails?

\- I cut them off so that I could be summoned during the Holy Grail War of the Moon Cell... I saw a soul so beautiful that I instantly fell in love.

The tender gaze that Tamamo addressed to Hakuno left no doubt about the identity of the one of which she spoke. Although the Master was... let's say she still had a lot to learn in the field of feelings and emotions, she nevertheless looked away, very embarrassed but also deeply touched.  
Kishinami remained silent for long seconds then...

\- Thank you.

Caster had a slight smile:

\- No... I thank you. When I made the decision to marry you... I was afraid of making another mistake... and that you can reject this Tamamo... as Emperor Toba did. But you were the best husband. If I had another hundred tails, I would sacrifice them to the last for you.

* * *

Hakuno and Tamamo devoted some of their time to being together. In the end, they did not often have the opportunity to think about anything other than their enemies.

But that time ended and Hakuno was concerned about something she had just learned:

\- Who are the _Old Ones_?

Kneeling on one of the beds, in his favorite resting pose, Caster waved a hand as one hunts a troublesome fly:

\- I suspect you need to learn more about this, goshujin-sama. After all, it is difficult to defeat an opponent that we do not know. However, I do not answer this question with pleasure. Never forget that knowledge is sometimes dangerous. This is the case here... the _Old Ones_ are monstrosities of outerspace and outertime, hideous contradictions of mad cries and visions of madness, violating all the laws of physics and matter. A mere glance at these non-Euclidean aberrations too foreign to be understood by humans could make you completely and irremediably insane!

In spite of her lack of emotion, Hakuno swallowed. Already, Caster's comments were cause for concern. But in addition, she had never heard so much disgust in the voice of her Servant. Tamamo remained for a moment to rehash dark thoughts and then sigh:

\- I don't claim to know much about the _Old Ones_. They have plagued Earth at a time that corresponds to the first divine generation. All my knowledge comes from Amaterasu. There is an unknown number of _Old Ones_. These are the most important ones, by hierarchical order...

Caster folded the eyelids and began to recite a sort of list. She lifted the index finger:  
\- **Azathoth**: primitive chaos sitting at the center of the infinite; formless and unrecognizable. The animator of darkness; disorder. The thought and form destroyer. The antithesis of creation; the completely negative aspect of the elemental Fire, which comes astrologically from the archaic Lion and, in the terrestrial sphere, from the "Hidden South".

She raised the middle finger:

\- **Yog-Sothoth**: Azathoth's "All-in-One"; vehicle of Chaos. The external manifestation of primitive expression. The door of the void through which must pass "those who come from elsewhere". The outward active intelligence of one who will always remain locked in impenetrable darkness.

Tamamo had a brief smile of excuse for the convoluted formulation:

\- I want to talk about Azathoth, of course.

She coughed elegantly and then repeated:

\- A positive manifestation of the Fire, marked in the firmament by the sign of the Lion and more particularly by the star known to the ancient Arabs as "Al-Kalb al-Asad" and the Romans as "Cor Leonis"- Lion's Heart- which is in the chest of the heavenly beast. Its terrestrial cardinal point is the immediate south.

Caster raised a new finger:

\- **Nyarlathotep**: The Crawling Chaos, moving, the Ether which serves as a mediator between the different aspects of the Old Ones. It is the receptacle of their combined will, their messenger and their servant- able to exist in any form at any place and at any time. Nyarlathotep is astrologically part of the Milky Way. The ancient Akkadians linked this pale light to their myth of the Great Serpent, the Egyptians called it the Celestial Nile, the Polynesians call it the long cloud-eating blue shark; in India, it bears the name of Nagavithi- the Serpent's trail.

Touching is a little finger, the kitsune continued her enumeration:

\- **Hastur**: Hastur the Unspeakable, the King in Yellow, the Voice of the _Old Ones_. The Avenger and the Destroyer, the one who walks on the wind and is not to be named. In the sphere of the elements, Hastur corresponds to the Air - element of the Dispute- and among the constellations, is recognized by the sign of Aquarius, asterisk supposed to govern the "Airy Trigon". On Earth, Hastur corresponds to the East.

The thumb:

\- **Cthulhu**: Master of inner depths, initiator of dreams. Among the elements, Cthulhu is represented by the Water and astrologically by the Scorpion known to the Akkadians under the name of Girtab- the one who catches and pricks the one before whom all must bow. Geographically, Cthulhu corresponds to the West- region attributed to death by the ancient Egyptians.

Finally, Caster touched the index finger of her left hand:

\- **Shub-Niggurath**: Great Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young (1). Earthly manifestation of the power of the _Old Ones_. The Sabbath god of witches. The natural element of Shub-Niggurath is the earth symbolized by the sign of the Bull in the firmament, and by the door of the Northwind on the terrestrial plane.

Tamamo nodded her head:

\- Of course, these six _Old Ones_ are only the most prominent of this divine family. It is after all mentioned of thousands of gods "formless and idiots" perpetually dancing around Azathoth.

Hakuno had listened attentively. The brief and convoluted description left her wondering... about creatures made of a single element? Correspondence with the zodiac? Ancient myths?

\- And the _Elder Gods_, those who defeated and locked them up?

Tamamo appeared annoyed:

\- Honestly, I hardly know. If the _Old Ones_ are contemporaries of the first divine generation, at the dawn of the Age of the Gods, the _Elder Gods_ are still earlier... and, above all, they come from another world.

This really surprised Hakuno. She blinked her eyes and leaned her head to the side:

\- A different world?

Despite the seriousness of the discussion, Caster missed a heartbeat: "Hakuno is so cute!" Then she shook her head to chase away that adorable vision...

\- The Betelgeuse star in the constellation of Orion. I know only one of the _Elder Gods_, Nodens with a hand of silver (2) says Master of the Deep Abysses. According to the _Tables Alphonsines_ or the _Libros del saber de Astronomica_, the very presence of Nodens on Betelgeuse gave its name to this star in Arabic. In fact, the astronomers of this people call it "Al-Mankib" the shoulder or "Al-Dhira" the arm, or even "Al Yad al-Yamma" the right hand of the Giant. Nodens is a god of the dead, more precisely the psychopomp god who brings the soul of the dead into the realm of the afterlife. Its name means "the one who fishes" or "catches" in the sense of "capturing", a logical name for the one who fishes the souls of the dead to lead them into the other world. Nodens appears in the Arthurian legend under the name of the Fisherman King; there he is considered as the guardian of the Grail.

Tamamo assumed an air of contemplation:

\- But you do well to ask questions about the _Elder Gods_, for all those who oppose the _Old Ones _they are a powerful recourse.

The kitsune made its mirror appear and murmured a few words before turning it to Hakuno. Instead of seeing her reflection, the teen girl saw the image of a blue stone medallion. Circular, it was engraved with a pentacle resembling a starfish whose arms were strangely twisted to the right. In its center, one saw a schematic eye.

\- This is the Elder Sign, engraved in Mnar stone. All the users of _magecraft_ know that the pentacle or "Star of the Magi" is the symbol of the microcosm Man, deity revered in human form. in the perspective of the _Magus_, man is considered as a creature of the four elements - fire, air, water, and earth- put in motion and balanced by the power of the Spirit - Fifth element or Hidden Element. That is what the five points of the pentagram symbolize. Like man, but on a scale of infinitely superior power, the _Elder Gods_ are a symbiosis of these five elements. While the _Old Ones_ are made of only one element. Also, each of them is therefore very weak faced with the opposite element. Cthulhu, the master of water, is thus vulnerable to fire and Shub-Niggurath is just as vulnerable to air since it embodies (in a sick and unbridled form) the fertility of the land we tread.

\- And so an Elder Sign protects from _Old Ones_.

Tamamo approved with a movement of the chin and sighed, a little disconcerted.

\- If only I could make one... Unfortunately, it has to be cut from Mnar's stone.

\- Stone of Mnar?

\- I suppose this stone comes from Betelgeuse.

\- And you don't have an Elder Sign?

Caster's ears went down. With her low tail, she looked at her Master, her eyes wet:  
\- Goshujin-sama, this Tamamo cannot offer you such a means of protection. She has never even seen an Elder Sign. She has everything and everything in her tail, but not what her beloved Master really needs. This Tamamo is beneath everything and does not deserve to be forgiven.

Hakuno stood up and caressed her servant between her ears, smiling.

\- Caster, how could I be mad at you? From the first time we met, you did nothing but save me again and again.

* * *

Kimata Ryuchi stood alone in his large office atop a tower overlooking Tokyo. The rainy city stretched as far as the eye could see, a forest of skyscrapers sheltering millions of souls... so many worthless insects in the eyes of the fearsome CEO. For him, they were only pawns to move on the squares of the gigantic chess game which he handed over to his competitors... the only beings who gained the status of persons in his eyes.

A psychiatrist would probably have had a lot to say about the mentality of a man who only recognized the existence of his enemies, but Kimata was far beyond their expertise.

\- Everything is ready.

The voice that rose from his work table was nothing human, it came from an old laptop. On the screen in outdated 2D appeared a vortex of darkness and burning eyes.

\- All right, Darkener, you can start.

The entity that Kimata had just named "Darkener" intervened in one way or another because a vast magic circle appeared in the middle of the free space in front of his desk, as traced by an invisible hand.  
Anyone who knew esotericism would have recognized the signs marking the pentacle as Enochian writing. The famous occultist John Dee (3) had used it in his works. Someone able to read this language would have recognized invocations calling for the Doels and a certain Tindalos... Even more strangely, some complex geometric figures were surrounded by equations that a specialist would have recognized as belonging to Einsteinian physics.

The CEO only took a look at this strange mix of science and esotericism before sitting in one of the deep armchairs in the lounge area. He took a handful of pills from a small refined porcelain box and swallowed them with a glass of water.

It was not a drug delivered by a pharmacy... but a product of ancient Chinese alchemy. The drug Liao had been created by Lao-Tseu, it induced a state of liminal narcosis that allowed getting out of the body while remaining conscious and able to speak. It was under its influence that the famous Chinese philosopher dictated his works to his disciples, as he traveled between the spheres, slipping between the dimensions and the time, these two illusions born of the limited mind of man.

Already, the Liao drug was making its effect and the brilliantly lit room seemed to plunge into the shadows. Without any chronology, the spirit of Kimata traveled through different eras: Nero Claudius Germanicus at the Colosseum of Rome, the First Men discovering the fire, the construction of the Cathedral of Chartres, the dinosaurs, the Wright brothers' plane... and then the primitive mud of the first ages of the world appeared.

Kimata met the Doels, he met Tindalos... and he made a pact with these entities transcending space and time.

In Kimata's office, a whirlwind of steam formed while an extremely pungent and foul smell filled the room.  
_The Hounds of Tindalos had just reached our Space-time, attracted in this world by the revenge of a witch. Their target? Kishinami Hakuno!_

Entities too absurd, too obscene to be described hummed the air, tending long greedy tongues. They looked for Hakuno, but found nothing...

* * *

In the hideout of the cellar of the Yamada house, Hakuno held her hand around her neck. The Tibetan mask that Tamamo had just given her reacted strangely. Its weight seemed to increase as the chain links became rigid.

\- Caster!

The magical fox-girl was next to her Master in an instant, quickly identifying the problem:

\- Goshujin-sama, someone is trying to locate you using a form of _magecraft_.

Tamamo no Mae made her mirror appear and murmured a short incantation. Immediately, a film of red light covered the walls, forming a barrier... a _Bounded Field_ capable of erasing this room to the senses of their enemies.

Immediately the silver mask returned to its normal state and Caster smiled, her ears quivering with joy:  
\- The attack was repelled, Master. Nothing can pass a _Kekkai _raised by your Servant... except perhaps the _magecraft_ of another Caster Servant.

There, in Kimata's office, the Hounds of Tindalos had just received new orders. They disappeared, melting with one of the corners of the room, leaving behind nothing but stinking vapors and bluish mud.

* * *

(1) In season 2 of Overlord, Ainz Oal Gown invokes the Shub-Niggurath youngs... just as their invocation requires the sacrifice of thousands of lives. They then massacre an army without much resistance; their size and hideous appearance are enough to terrorize the humans...

(2) The Welsh name of the Irish god Nuada... especially known to F/GO players for his famous _Airgetlám_ arm. By the way, Bedivere's silver arm is not Nodens' real arm.

(3) John Dee is best known as esotericist. However, he was also a mathematician specializing in non-euclidean geometry (he was also a friend of Mercator), a specialist in optics, and... a secret agent (Agent 007... no, it's not even a joke. I always wondered if it was a silly coincidence or if Ian Flemming had purposely assigned this code name to James Bond)! Not to mention that Lovecraft attributed him the _Necronomicon_ translation in English.


	8. Chapter 8 Dark Thirst

**Akasha Bloodriver: ****No, not Vlad Ill. I want to avoid reusing Servants that have already appeared in Fate Extra. For Ushiwakaru... I do not know him (her?) and I would prefer to avoid using Heroic Spirits that I have not seen for giving Tamamo back her divine powers... I think she's powerful enough as she is, so no.**

**As for the Elders Ones and the Old Ones, I have a hard time understanding what you're talking about because you seem to be confusing the two... their names are very similar, it's true. The Elders Gods are a group of ancient gods who have come from the stars. They are neutral or even reasonably friendly to humans. Although Tamamo calls the Old Ones "gods" they are actually cosmic horrors. They are enemies of the Elders Gods, but they once defeated and imprisoned them. I think the Elder Gods bring together some gods of different pantheons that go back before the creation of the world like Annu, Tiamat and Apsu among the Sumerians, Cronus among the Greeks, Zurvan among the Persians. The legends say they created the world. For example, Eä (the sword of Gilgamesh) was used by Anu to separate Earth from Heaven, a legend found in Biblical genesis.**

* * *

**Dark Thirst**

* * *

Yamada Chihiro was a young woman, rather pretty, married to a man ten years older. She married him less for love than for material security. He did not lack money, indeed, because he was the owner of a medium-sized company providing electronic equipment to Allied companies. At least Yamada Kuroe shared her humanism and dislike of the global plutocracy. Not surprisingly, they met during a protest against government corruption.

A doctor in medicine and prosthetics, Chihiro compensated for the loss of a happy life by devoting herself to her patients. A very sad life... despite the material well-being of a large modern house, the state-of-the-art in home automation did not replace the absence of children.

It must be said that she and her husband had little chance of having one... one of the plagues of this dying world was the decline of births. Rising temperatures reduced male fertility, while pollution - especially in heavy metals - increased the chances of women's miscarriage. As for the children who were born, they were often physically or mentally disabled. Obviously it had nothing to do with fertilizers and pesticides that were in drinking water... Experts said so... and we could take their word for it after all their studies had been paid by the agrochemical industry.

Such were the gloomy thoughts that crossed Chihiro's mind as she prepared the meal in the kitchen. However, on that day, these thoughts hardly disturbed her. Ms. Yamada had a reason to be in a good mood thinking about children. For once, her house wasn't empty.

As she returned to the living room, Chihiro smiled at her guest. Sitting on the sofa, Kishinami Hakuno followed an anime attentively. The adolescent's too serious face showed intense concentration. In the last two days, Yamada Chihiro had repeatedly felt a pinch in her heart. What happened to the young teenager to show such a lack of expressiveness? Inspector Minamoto had just warned Chihiro that an accident had made her amnesiac, but there was no need to be very good at psychology to understand that it didn't explain everything. In Hakuno's monotonous face, the gaze alone was mobile... and what mobility! These large intelligent and luminous eyes scrutinized everything, judged, weighed, classified. Some may have thought that Kishinami was not very smart because of her lack of responsiveness... but Chihiro was not mistaken. Behind this passivity was a mind of first strength.

\- Careful, it's hot!

Seated on either side of the coffee table, the two women separated their chopsticks and bowed towards each other:

\- _Itadadakimasu_!

Thanks to the resources of the robotchef, Chihiro had concocted yakisoba. That is, Chinese noodles sautéed in a mixture of vegetables (red peppers, seaweed, and Chinese cabbage), spices (such as ginger and pepper) and ground beef meat.

After the first bites, Hakuno began to opine with her head visibly enjoying this meal. Chihiro - who had been smiling since her arrival in the room - felt even happier having managed to put some animation on the adolescent's face. She was nothing like a chef in a big restaurant and was a bit afraid not to please her guest.

Except it didn't take much to please Hakuno in this area... She came out of seven weeks eating only the (limited) menu of a school canteen... After that, any family dish would have been a culinary masterpiece.  
The meal continued in silence, Chihiro not having the heart to interrupt her guest. The latter ends by resting her chopsticks next to the now-empty bowl and unites her hands:

\- _Gochisôsama_ (Thank you, which was very good).

It took no more for the hostess to smile again:

\- Do you like to be here, Hakuno-chan?

After a brief moment of reflection, the teen girl responded with a positive head movement.

\- You will need new clothes. If you know your measurements, we can order them online.

\- Online?

Hakuno tilted his head to the side, causing a strange cough attack at Chihiro's. The latter turned her head to hide her sudden emotion.

\- You okay?

\- Yes, yes... fine. I meant ordering clothes in Cyberspace.

Remembering that the P.T. of the Moon Cell was a legal tender in Cyberspace, Hakuno agreed:

\- I have money to buy...

\- I was talking about giving them to you. You are my guest, Hakuno-chan.

The teenager turned her gaze towards a point in the void, pretending to listen to a voice heard by herself. This was the third characteristic attitude of Kishinami after his lack of expression and the vivacity of her gaze... At times she seemed to talk to someone and even have lively discussions... except that there was no one! And that... well, that really impressed Chihiro. Uncomfortable, the woman-doctor waited for her guest to finish talking with her invisible friend...  
She must have come to an agreement with... herself (?) since Kishinami turned to Chihiro and acquiesced:  
\- Okay.

Clearing her throat while hiding the feeling of discomfort inspired by the scene, Ms. Yamada smiles:

\- Otherwise, you need something else?

\- Books.

Yamada Chihiro would have expected almost anything: video games, perfumes, jewelry... but not books. After all, bookstores and libraries had disappeared about 50 years ago. Supposedly because they were "old-fashioned" and humanity had more sophisticated means of expression... but especially because the global plutocracy sponsored "educational" programs designed to turn consumers into bleating sheep, and of course there was a lot of advertising for **their** products.  
Dictatorships have always hated books because they encouraged people to think for themselves (1).

Of course, Hakuno had noticed Ms. Yamada's startled and troubled expression. With her penetrating spirit, she immediately understood her reaction:

\- I want to say something to read, not an interactive program...

\- Ah, I see... I'll see what I can find for you.

Chihiro looked at Hakuno with curiosity:

\- You must have received a special education to love books so much. Your parents are antique dealers?  
The face without expression, Hakuno shook her head slowly:

\- I have no memory of my parents.

Chihiro became confused, once again uncomfortable, dying to have forgotten in the thread of conversation that the girl had amnesia. She hesitated... insisting would be clumsy or perhaps hurtful. But something troubled Chihiro in the answer of the brown head teen...

\- Hakuno-chan, I know you have lost your memory. However, I find it strange that you talk about your parents as strangers. They don't take care of you?

\- They are dead.

Ms. Yamada remained breathless by this response, paralyzed and empty-minded, shocked to have led the conversation to what would have been a shock to the child in front of her. However, once again, Hakuno slowly shook her head:

\- As I told you, Yamada-san, I don't remember my parents. I was told they died in a terrorist attack.

\- I am sorry.

Kishinami had a brief smile:

-It's not your fault, Yamada-san. It was a long time ago. I can't remember.

Without remembering her parents, Hakuno certainly could not miss them as individuals. However, even if Hakuno couldn't see it, the place they had occupied in his heart must have looked like a gaping void...

\- Who... who takes care of you, Hakuno-chan? A member of your family?

\- I no longer have any family members alive. We... we could talk about something else?

For the first time, Hakuno showed an emotion. Her eyelids lowered, she stared at the floor, seeming to recall something painful... So he still had memories, realized Chihiro... Unfortunately, they were not pleasant and were undoubtedly linked to the death of her relatives. Ms. Yamada hesitated, but she needed an answer to this question:

\- Hakuno-chan, nobody takes care of you?

The last Master holds a hand on her only jewel, a silver medallion in the shape of a mask:

\- The best people look after me. She is more beautiful than you could imagine faithful as my shadow, very kind, amusing, wise, cultured...

Kishinami added mentally: [_She has a fox tail and ears and she is the avatar of an Izumo goddess_]. The Victor of the Moon stared a point in the void saying that, the answer made her blush.

Obviously, the hostess had never heard of Heroic Spirit in spiritual form... Chihiro masked it rather well, but she was devasted: "Hakuno-chan is so lonely that she invented herself an invisible friend". (2)

* * *

Politely apologizing, Tohsaka Tomoko played elbows to cross the vast crowded hall. As the elevator was literally stormed, she quickly climbed the steps leading up to the «morgue», the place where the old newspapers were stored. In the past, we had to physically keep the previous issues, a real puzzle for filing and consulting. The use of microfilms and viewers, and then computer terminals, had transformed this new work of Hercules into a more modest task, which did not require spending all its holidays there.

Tomoko had just made two interesting phone calls. She had first received a call from her grandmother who had confirmed that she had received her son at the Fuyuki station. The journalist had sent her away from Tokyo because it would be too easy to take him away to blackmail her. Yesterday, she listened to Kishinami Hakuno summarize her findings... a new Grail War... the invocation of creatures of the Cthulhu Mythos... Kimata seemed willing to do anything to get his way, and she would take every precaution to not be vulnerable.

Tomoko sighed.

She had also just had another stormy discussion with her ex-husband. To be honest, it was her fault... again. There had been so much between them and for so long that it was very difficult to work with him. Perhaps she still loved him... too much to forgive him.

There was blood between them.

Her eyelashes are filled with tears.

She could never forgive him.

Then why did she always come back to him?

The truth was that Sezuku was the only person she trusted... the man who betrayed her, who took from her one of the beings she loved the most... was the only person she really trusted.  
If there really were gods and demons, they must have laughed at her... or cried.

* * *

As the journalist entered the service, a strange feeling made her stop. Wringing her neck, she looked all around her without noticing anything and then understood. Silence. The daily archives, despite the miniaturization, occupied the entire floor. Offices and storage areas of recent issues followed one another in series, an area too large to meet people at the entrance but not to hear conversations. Even with the closing of the offices, he had to remain a small team. At least one person had to stay to help her with her research. Her brow furrowing, Tomoko started again, occasionally stopping to listen. But all her attention did not allow the young woman to hear anything, apart from the absence of noise which oppressed her. That feeling of discomfort kept her from calling.  
But, reframing her anguish, she did not turn back. Her footsteps rang in the hallway and it seemed to her that this lonely sound swelled monstrously. The first door was closed. So did the second one. And as she was pressing the beak of the next one, a roar startled her. A bell she had heard in practice, but never for real: the fire alarm.

Immediately, she began to run to retrace her steps. Too late! The fire door had closed. A rushed running sound, the movement of a shadow in her back, made her turn. Just in time to see a stealth silhouette leap out of a door frame. Right between her and the emergency exit…

* * *

Minamoto interrupted the driver's babbling with a movement of the hand. Leaning over the radio, he turned the volume button a few notches. Dispatch was picking up his call:

\- All units in the vicinity of the Machi Shimbun, a fire has just started in the newspaper's offices! Emergency routes are disrupted by traffic. Clear cars in front of ambulances and fire vehicles. I repeat…  
\- Go for it! Cut the inspector.

Without protesting, Asano started the siren while his colleague put the beacon on the roof.

* * *

With her eyes enlarged with horror, Tomoko watched her opponent walk towards her. Guessing that the party had committed itself in his favor, he had stopped his furtive progression to advance in the middle of the corridor. It was... it was...

Despite her formation of _Magus_ and the hereditary mental barrier powers of the Tohsaka family, Tomoko turned her eyes away from disgust...

Angles... angles entering into each other... the thing contorted itself all in obscene angles, soiled... without the purity of any curve... and this disgusting tongue, greedy for blood...  
A _Hound of Tindalos_!

Despite the terror, Tomoko tried to gather her memories. Running away would be useless. This creature was not called "hound" because of its canine appearance... it looked like nothing... but to its ability to a bloodhound. _Hounds of Tindalos_ were summoned by a witch to hunt, find and drain his enemies of their blood because the _Hounds_ had some vampires' power.

How does she keep it away?

The _Hounds_ were in the service of Tindalos a creature of which we knew almost nothing. Perhaps he was part of the _Old Ones_ or perhaps not. In any case, it was said that Tindalos was a creature made only of angles. In the past, when Rome was young, the disciples of Pythagoras and the practitioners of the mysteries of Eleusis had created magical equations capable of keeping at arm such monsters from a sphere foreign to the world of men... Unfortunately, their knowledge had disappeared long before the foundation stone of the _Clocktower_ was laid.

Although she looked away so as not to become mad to contemplate this... budding of impossible angles contorting, entering and exiting from each other according to non-euclidean principles, Tomoko felt the _Hound of Tindalos_ approaching.

A memory returns to her, drawn from an old book with yellowed pages. A book published in the early twentieth century by the "Yellow Goblin" editions of New York, a carefully redacted version of the _Necronomicon_ from its English translation by John Dee. She raised her fingers in a particular posture known as "the Elder Sign":

\- **CALDULECH! DALMALEY! CADAT!**

She ended the imprecation with another sign that twisted her fingers in a strange way: "the sign of Koth".  
The monster before her was only mildly bothered... For the spell to be truly effective, he would have had to hold in her hand a _Mystical Code_ called "Scimitar of Barzai".

She could not stop it... but she made it hesitate. What saved her life, preventing her from being beheaded by the monster when it jumped on her. Rolling on the ground, Tomoko immediately got back on her feet and jumped into the corridor towards the emergency exit. Pursued by the tracker, Tomoko dash the stair four at time. In her panic, she misled and stormed into a shed where heavy rolls of paper were stored.

These areas, usually crossed by many forklifts, were empty. The fire alarm had driven out all personnel. Since the journalist had never set foot in the print house, she crashed into a random driveway. Sheltered between two of the gigantic paper cylinders, Tomoko took a look at her pursuer. The non-euclidean atrocity had stopped nearby; its dreadful tongue stood in the air describing a succession of absurd angles... it smelled her. Tomoko endeavored to breathe superficially and retreated into the shadows, her heart beating to break. After a minute or two, Minamoto's former wife ventured to look for a new observation post. She circled the roller and entered a span... and came to rest.

The _Hound of Tindalos_ stood just at the corner, its tongue reaching towards her. Caught on the wrong foot by this target who threw herself in its arms, the monster reacts at the wrong time. its claws (?) drew long, sharp furrows in a roll of paper as the journalist escaped. Tomoko climbed an iron staircase and passed through the adjoining room. It was a hall on two levels, invaded by the noise of the powerful rotary presses that printed the newspaper. The pages covered with ideograms formed like a long ribbon in motion. Machines that should have been stopped still worked. The corpses of two bleeding machinists recounted the violence of the vampiric monstrosity that had killed everyone it met since it entered. Without even reacting to the anomaly, the young woman ran on the surveillance bridge. But before she reached the end, the creature from beyond the sphere reached her. Sharp cleats closed on her shoulder, tearing the leather from her jacket. The furious tongue was already searching for her throats pulsating with fresh blood. Cruel, naked fear came out of her lips in a howl.

\- Stop! Police! Don't move.

The creature turned its head towards the call. Two men, Minamoto and Asano, pointed their weapons in its direction. When their eyes became accustomed to darkness, a tremor passed through them.  
\- _Stoi_! What the hell!

\- I don't know, Mihei!

\- Do you think we can cuff this thing?

Minamoto Sezuku swallowed, fleeing the thing from the look... this... this thing... had no definite shape... motionless it seemed to move... made of outward angles that seemed to be coming in... and budding up and spreading... it hurt the eyes... headache... pain in the soul itself even... everything in him rejected this appearance in an unspeakable disgust...

\- Stay there and keep this monster in your sights, I'll go up and take Tomoko from it.

\- You are crazy!

With his pistol held in both hands, the inspector reached the foot of the iron staircase. The monster did not move. The young woman was resting at its feet (or what he assumed to be it feet), half-collapsed. Blood flowed from her shoulder and she stared at the policeman with wide eyes. Her small breasts were lifted by breath breathing. At the top of the stairs, Sezuku held his gun and called:

\- Tomoko-chan, are you conscious?

\- Yes.

\- Do not move!

The monster threw its head back to make a dreadful howl. From the outside of the hall, we saw all the windows shatter. Inside it was worse. Ears and nose bleeding, Tomoko lost consciousness. As if struck by a ram, Minamoto fell a good part of the steps before stopping his fall by grabbing the railing. Less touched, Asano manages to stay on his feet. Without dealing with the papers that were flying in all directions or the hemoglobin that was sticking to his face, he pointed his gun, emptying his magazine.

The weapon wasn't loaded with ordinary bullets, but with soft anti-cyborgs cartridges. Their ram-jet thrusters and micro-explosive charge were more in the category of rockets than bullets.

The shots did not injure the _Hound of Tindalos_ but unbalanced it. Rocking over the balustrade, the overseas creature fell into the printer. The carpet formed by the paper tape drove it towards the rollers of the press. Before the thing could do anything, the movement had put it within range of the press and tons of scrap metal caught it.

On the other side, the pages of the newspaper appeared to be stained with a blue, foul mud.

* * *

In Tokyo city, most citizen lives in large, urban residential complexes, clusters of thousands of small apartments. For the resistance, these apartments make effective safehouses. The city was so vast that is it effectively impossible to place all urban complexes under surveillance; the bustle of a large population center was a very good cover. And with the international airport of Narita, and the commercial port escape route was always available. And with the abundance of stores and markets, obtaining supplies - and, often, illegal material- was not terribly difficult.

Nadia was a pop singer, a celebrity in Japan. She was well known for her extravagant parties and her many acquaintances.

But she, also, was a member of the resistance working to address against the plutocracy's propaganda in the media.

And her lifestyle was a covert story. The neighbors were jaded to see actors, producers, and celebrities and "family" come and go from the apartment of the singer at any time of the night or day. This allowed resistance fighters to come and go without concern.

The trick was that resistance fighters that Nadia hosted weren't in her apartment. Its many visitors have only used to camouflage the passage of opponents to the dictatorship. In fact, a secret passage led to another apartment... empty. Officially, it was for sale and could not find a buyer. Although not furnished, he had water and electricity through a bypass on Nadia's apartment.

It was in this empty apartment that Inspector Minamoto drove Tohsaka Tomoko. Wounded and frightened, she thought no less as quickly and well as usual:

-These monsters hunt me down... they'll find me...

Minamoto helped her ex-wife to sit on the floor of the empty apartment:  
\- Who?

\- The _Tindalos' Hounds_! These... things felt me... they will find me again. You have to stop them... you don't understand. Killing one of them will not stop them. They thirst for everything that has emerged from life. They are alive in a different way than we are... and we awaken in them a cosmic appetite and a hatred that surpasses all that man can understand and express.  
Uncomfortable, Minamoto Sezuku laughs:

\- You are describing the Devil himself! I did not think you could believe in absolute evil.

\- Evil is a prosaically human idea. The _Hounds of Tindalos_ are beyond our morals. Within the spheres where they move, there is no right, no wrong, in the way we understand it. We were born from a world of curved lines. And they come from a world where everything is _angles_.

She grabs Sezuku by the lapel of his jacket:

\- Go on, you have to go to a hardware store to buy plaster.

The police inspector looked at his ex-wife as if she had lost her mind:

\- Plaster?

\- And a bucket of water to mix it! Damn it, you're listening to what I'm telling you? _The Hounds of Tindalos_ are made of _angles_. They only move in _angles_... for them, a universe made only of curves does not exist!

With her hand, Tomoko showed the corners of the room, the edge of the window:

\- We need to clear all angles in this apartment to prevent them from getting in.

* * *

(1) "Where books are burned, men are always burned" Goethe.

(2) What would you think in her place? "Hello, the psychiatric hospital? I have a mad teen at home! "?


	9. Chapter 9 Rituals of Light and Darkness

**Boyzilla: Yes Hakuno is cute. And, do you really think I'm making Hakuno stay with a childless mother by "accident"?**

**Akasha Bloodriver: Same response than Boyzilla, I preparing an adoption.**

* * *

**Rituals of Light and Darkness**

* * *

In the basement of the Yamada house, Kishinami Hakuno frowned, reflected, and looked at the playing cards she held in front of her: "I'll add five!"

The long-haired, brown-haired teenager pushed five green chips towards the pile representing the bet.  
Tamamo's ears trembled: "I'm in the bet and I'm going five more!"

A poker game was taking place in the safehouse. Kneeling on both sides of a reversed case, Servant and Master spent time waiting for the owners of the house to return. However, the game was not very contested... the number of chips in front of Hakuno was clearly higher than Caster's.  
Hakuno put his cards on the box:

\- Royal Flush!

Tamamo yelped and collapsed forward, placing her own playing cards. There were three aces, and two kings, a figure called "Full House". Certainly a good mix of cards... but inferior to the Royal Flush which was the best possible composition of cards, the five best cards, all in the same color...

\- But how do you do it, Goshujin-sama?

Kishinami seriously considered the question for a moment and, with a head tilt, replied:  
\- Luck?

\- No, Master, how do you know when I have good cards?

Hakuno pointed to the top of her Servant's head:

\- Your ears.

Like any canid, the fox betrays its emotions by movements of the tail and ears... Tamamo had absolutely no "Poker-face", especially for Hakuno who after several weeks of cohabitation knew perfectly how to decode the emotions of her Servant!

Recovering from her temporary depression, Tamamo displayed a big smile:

-Are we playing something else?

Yesterday, Yamada Chihiro made some online purchases for Hakuno. Delivery services - very fast on Tokyo- had delivered this morning. There were clothes and a collection of various games including a console connected to a screen. During the day, Tamamo no Mae and Kishinami Hakuno had tried a little everything. It must be said that they did not have much else to do (1).

For a teenager as active as Hakuno, being locked up was boring.

As they rummaged through the pile of games generously offered by their hostess, Caster stood up and heard the secret door turn on its hinges. She immediately disappeared, returning to her spiritual form.  
Two men made their entrance. Yamada Kuroe, a 40-year-old solid industrialist to whom the house belonged, accompanied police inspector Minamoto Sezuku. After quick greetings, Minamoto asked Yamada to leave him alone with his guest.

As soon as the industrialist had left the place, Sezuku swept the room with his eyes, stopping on the poker game. He spoke:

\- Caster is here, isn't she?

In a shimmer of blue and silver particles, Tamamo regained form, her arms surrounding Hakuno's neck, her distrustful gaze fixed on the policeman:

\- As if I were going to leave a bachelor alone with my husband? Who could resist such a treasure!

While the "husband" in question addressed an excuse gaze to Sezuku, the latter shook his head without answering, already familiar with the strange behavior of the Kitsune... to say the least. He preferred to ask the question that bothered him, the very reason for his presence:

\- Is there a way to protect yourself from the _Hounds of Tindalos_?

The question surprised Tamamo:

\- _The Hounds of Tindalos_?

Sezuku insisted:

\- Do you know them?

Tamamo's foxtail quickly beat the measure, a sign that she did not really appreciate being questioned by an individual she suspected of wanting to "steal" Hakuno from her. That said, this definition applied to the totality of humanity... For her, Hakuno was simply the most adorable being in the universe. Proof, even the Old Ones wanted to return to Earth! For what other reason than taking Hakuno?  
the teenager glanced at Sezuku and he explains:

\- They are looking after Tomoko.

Kishinami touched her Servant's hand and turned her head to stare at Caster, imploring her with her big brown eyes. Tamamo could not resist this adorable expression. Her ears trembled: "Heaven me!"

Caster then seemed to deflate as she turned to Sezuku, abandoning her suspicious air, she answered honestly:  
\- I only knew they are inhabitants of the _angles _of the time, while human (and all common life) live in the _curves_.

The policeman replied with a nod:

\- I left Tomoko in an apartment where we erased all the angles with plaster. She says the _Hounds of Tindalos_ can't find her in...

Tamamo no Mae cut off Sezuku:

\- No, they cannot materialize in a space where there is no angle. But, they have probably already located your friend. I don't know what they do, but you can imagine that they can intervene in some way, by asking for help from other entities that do not need angles to materialize, for example.  
Inspector Minamoto Sezuku's face now reflected visible anguish. He took out his mobile phone, manipulated it a few moments before showing it to Tamamo:

\- Tomoko spoke of a kind of talisman that could protect her.

Caster will decipher the text written by Tohsaka Tomoko and agrees:

\- Barzai scimitar, yes, that's a good idea.

She reflected for a few moments, looked at her Master who in return sent her an imploring look. Caster sighed unequivocally... yes, she was going to help Tohsaka Rin's little niece, no need to look at her like that. Tamamo could never resist the pleading of her lovely husband.

She touched her foxtail to get a thick centuries-old printed book and handed it to the policeman.

\- In this book, you will find the instructions for making the scimitar. She must do it with her hands and not let another touch it, it is imperative, otherwise, the scimitar will have no power. Tell Tomoko to also make Ibn-Ghazi powder. Creatures from other worlds often have the ability to make themselves invisible, she will need the powder of materialization.

\- Thank you!

Tamamo shrugged her shoulders:

\- I didn't do it for you.

Given the look of adoration, she threw at Hakuno, no need to be a genius to understand who she had done it for. Smiling, the Master passed her hand between the ears of the kitsune who obviously enjoy it.

* * *

Tohsaka Tomoko faced a necessary of alchemy. She mingled dust from a grave where a body had stayed for four hundred years with amaranth; ivy leaves which she had just reduced to powder, and some fine salt. She mixed it with the mortar and then made a strange sign.

There was a magical reaction.

The young woman nodded before putting the mystical materialization powder in a lead box she had just made. It was adorned with the sign of Koth...

It was not the hardest thing to do.

Making the scimitar itself had been more difficult for the _Magus_. Make is form was a simple shaping through the Alchemical _Transmutation_ and no one was asking her to manipulate the noble metals with the precision of the deceased Einzbern. She bought copper and gave it the shape of a curved sword.  
Tomoko took the blade in hand and focused on a more precise _Transmutation_. Her finger landed on one side and slowly drew lines of strange writing as no people had ever used on Earth. Then the young _Magus_ repeated the operation with other signs on the other side of the blade.

Then she lit a brazier and began to sing while passing the scimitar in the flames:

\- _Hcoriaxoju, Zodcarnes, I recall you with all my strength, O mighty spirits who inhabit the Great Abyss. By the terrible name of Azathoth, come and give power to this blade worked in accordance with the Ancient Tradition. By Xenthono-Rohmatru I call you, O Antquelis, and by the vast and terrible name of Damamiach which Crom-yha spoke and which the mountains repeated, I call you with all my strength, O Barbuelis; visit me, assist me! Make powerful my invocations so that this weapon, which has received the charm of fire, possesses such powers that it fills with fear all the spirits that would disobey my orders, and that it allows me to form all the kinds of Circles, mystical figures and emblems indispensable to the practice of magic art. In the name of the Great and Mighty Yog-Sothoth and by the invincible sign of Voor..._

Tomoko twisted her fingers in a strange way before claiming three times (a magic number): "_Give me the power_!"

The flames turned blue, a sign that the summoned spirits had accepted the request. She took the heated blade and plunged it into a mixture of brine and cock gall.

She had previously prepared the incense of Zkauba which had required a magical ceremony just as complicated. Making it burn, she drove out the spirits invoked by these words:

\- _In the name of Azathoth and Yog-Sothoth and their faithful servant Nyarlathotep and by their power, I dismiss you_.

She made a strange new sign: "_Go away in peace and don't come back until I call you back_."  
Tomoko made the sign of Koth, contorting her fingers in strange ways and the flames of the brazier returned to red.

She was feeling tired. The invisible presences which had for a moment slipped into the room to give its power to the Barzai scimitar had left her with her hair bristling... Tomoko had not been so afraid since the day -still a child- when she had randomly opened a book in her grandmother's library... there came out a demon made of fuliginous shadows and speaking German!

The young Magus went to open the door: "It's done."

In the corridor, Sezuku startled. He fearfully passed through the door and entered the floor room covered with a magic circle. He had a crackling laugh:

\- I can't believe that in the last year of the twenty-first century I'm doing this...it sounds so crazy. You know, if I hadn't seen that _Hound of Tindalos_, I wouldn't believe it.

He paused and took his cell phone, processing his messages:

\- Since I'm talking about it, do you remember that I entrusted the blue mud that made up this monster's body to the police scientific laboratory? They just called me.

The inspector held his breath before announcing the incredible discovery:

\- It's a kind of living protoplasm... except it's devoid of enzymes. According to the chemist of the scientific police, enzymes catalyze the chemical reactions that occur in living cells. All pluricellular organisms need enzymes for a number of essential reactions to an organized life. Except for the Hounds of Tindalos... according to the chemist, an organism able to live without an enzyme would not age.

* * *

They were waiting.

There was nothing else to do but wait.

The _Hounds of Tindalos_ would eventually appear. Tomoko would normally face them alone and the presence of Sezuku was totally useless. However, the policeman refused to leave his ex-wife without help. After all, the bullets hurt these monsters, he could be useful.

Of War-weary, Tohsaka Tomoko had let him stay.

So they waited and the hours went by.

As Minamoto was bored, he asked a question which he wants understood:

\- It has been several times that you or Caster mentioned "spheres" or a "curved" world opposed to a "angles" world and I do not understand what you are referring to.

Tomoko smiles:

\- Scipio's dream (2).

\- What is it?

\- Scipion Africanus, the Roman hero who defeated Hannibal, view in dream a celestial temple and nine planetary orbs. The most outer sphere, including all the others, is the "primum mobile", God himself. Scipio then heard a powerful and yet very gentle sound. It is the Music of the Spheres. This vision confirmed an intuition of Pythagoras. Hearing in a forge, the repeated blows of the hammer on the anvil, he remembered that one can express in the form of sounds any quantitative measure, including equations and geometry. He then began to explore this concept using various musical instruments. According to Pythagoras, in our universe, from the soul of man to the divine presence, everything vibrates at a frequency of its own. A frequency that can be expressed by a sound, the set of these sounds - which are in fact both equations and geometric concepts - is what is called the Music of the Spheres. According to astronomer Kepler, the specific vibration of the Earth is musically formulated by the notes Mi Fa Mi, which Kepler translates as _Mi(ser)_ _FaM(es)._ _Miser_ means miserable or unhappy in Latin, and _fames_ famine, which according to him would confirm a verse of the Bible: "in this valley of tears reign hunger and pain".

Minamoto Sezuku gnashed his teeth:

-Very reassuring!

Tomoko replied with a smile:

\- The Earth is only a transitory world, a world of trials where the soul of man must be roughed up before reaching the higher Spheres.

The policeman sighed:

-Given what our world is going through, I have a hard time contradicting this... Kepler?  
\- Johannes Kepler, a 16th-century astronomer.

\- And the "angles"?

Tomoko began to think, seeking to express foreign concepts:

\- When I told you about the notes issued by the Earthly Sphere, Mi Fa Mi, misery famine, you were quite shocked. Yet if you listen to a triangle player alone, you wouldn't be very impressed either... The Music of the Spheres is like a philharmonic orchestra playing a piece of grandiose music where the Earth is only an isolated instrument, the whole is perfect for it. The world of "angles" is all that exists outside of this perfection, a bit like car horns and insults of drivers that would be heard from the street, disturbing a concert. Of course, this hurly-burly is also the Pythagorean translation of mathematical equations and geometric concepts.

Sezuku nodded, showing that he understood:

\- So if I interpret correctly what you have explained, the Music of the Spheres is... the orchestra of the perfection of the universe under the baton of God himself.

Tomoko couldn't help laughing:

\- Yes, that's right. Don't forget, however, that Kepler was Catholic and that it affects his vision of the world. For him, God had to express himself in Latin... which is stupid. Latin is the liturgical language of the Church, the one in which believers pray. Latin was chosen by the Roman Church for purely administrative reasons. They wanted as many people as possible to understand the sermons and Latin was the official language of the Roman Empire. The sacred language of the Church is... Hebrew (3). It is therefore in Hebrew that a Christian should seek meaning in the Music of the Spheres. Anyway, they are all wrong, Pythagoras (4) thought that mathematics was the language of God.

\- And the ringing coming from the world of "angles", he too obeys a conductor?

The young woman immediately showed a dark face:

-Yes, he stands in the center of the uncreated. He is called Azathoth, the primal chaos, and near him resounds the wild and discordant music of invisible fifes and drums, around him dance for eternity cohorts of misshapen and foolish gods.

* * *

It was incredible that things changed so quickly.

A moment earlier, they were calmly waiting...

And then ...

A force had begun to act. The apartment was shaken like an earthquake. Everywhere the plaster added to round the corners was broken. The fragments, projected in every direction were collected by an invisible hand and gathered on the ground to form a triangle.

A disgusting smell of swamp had invaded the room and a green smoke swirled over the triangle.

While Sezuku was watching the phenomenon, gawking... Tomoko was already reacting. She had seized the lead box containing Ibn-Ghazi's powder. Spreading a little on her palm, she blew it towards the smoke.

The powder of apparition made its effect, monstrous shapes, all in absurd angles were now contorting above the triangle. Long tongues came out of what was to be their mouth, sniffing, searching, eager for blood.

The _Magus _raised the copper scimitar above her head, twisting the fingers of the other hand in a strange way:

\- **CALDULECH! DALMALEY! CADAT!**

Without a sign of resistance, the two monsters disappeared... their presence vanished leaving only the pungent smell of swamps behind.

* * *

In the evening, the moon was full.

Its silver clarity filtered between the clouds, illuminating Tokyo's megalopolis.

In a disused hangar in the harbor, about thirty wooden pillars had been planted in the ground. Each of them bore the corpse of a child or teenager who died under torture.

On his knees on the concrete floor, Kimata Ryuchi finished drawing a magic circle very recognizable for all those who practiced the _Magecraft_, the invocation pentacle of a Servant.

Nicking his right hand, the witch mixed a little of his blood and began his incantation:

_"For the elements, silver and iron._

_The foundation: stone and the archduke of pacts._

_And for my great master Abdul Alhazred."_

The circle began to radiate blue light.

_"Close the four gates._

_Come forth the crown and follow the forked road leaning to the kingdom."_

The light rising from the circle turned green and a double of the invocation circle, slowly rising, formed over the original.

_"Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Repeat five times, but when each is filed, destroy it."_

The circle of light turned orange.

_"Set!  
Heed my words. My will create your body, and your sword create my destiny. If you heed the Grail's call, and obey my will and reason the answer me. I hereby swear that I shall be all the good in the world. That I shall defeat all evil in the world."_

There was certainly a great irony that such a man would proclaim with so little sincerity the words of the invocation ritual. But the circle responded with a wave of power that lifted up the fatty papers accumulated on the ground, making the cracked windows tremble.

_"Seven heaven clad in the great words of power. From the binding circle, thou guardian of the scales!"_  
There was an explosion of light and an elusive, bluish silhouette seemed to come out of the invocation circle, rising in the air it gradually gained in density.

A man wrapped in a black dress with a collar resembling a sea anemone had just appeared. His globular eyes roamed the room and stopped on the dead children: "Magnificent, Master, I see that you also love art. I feel that we will get along well... together let us profane the work of God!"

Kimata Ryuchi cried in stupor. How... how... he had done everything according to the rules... yet this... this... puppet... could not be the great Abdul Alhazred!

-Who are you?

\- Servant Caster, Gilles de Rais, but you can call me Bluebearb, Master!

It was really not Kimata's lucky day, no doubt he would think twice before attacking a _Spiritron Hacker_ when he needed a computer to perform an invocation.

* * *

At the same moment in a deserted street of the immense city, a photonic crystal cube appeared, floating above the ground. Beneath it appeared a circle hardly different from the one Kimata had just used.

Without it being necessary to use a formula or human sacrifices, the cube made appear a servant. A beautiful young woman in armor, her blond hair tied in a long braid held back by a metal headband, she leaned on a spear... no, a flag whose flag remained wrapped around the shaft.

She fell to her knees, tying her hands in a gesture of prayer, her voice echoing in French:

_\- Seigneur Dieu, ait pitié de l'humanité souffrante. Pardonne-nous, protège-nous en cette heure d'épreuve... et surtout délivre-nous du mal !_

When she opened her beautiful violet eyes, they shone with determination. She stood up and raised her standard. Deployed, it began to beat in the wind.

\- Servant Ruler, ready to work!

Having fulfilled its task, the crystal cube disappeared.

* * *

1) Yes, Hakuno and Tamamo are also in quarantine, they support us at the time of the Coronavirus!  
(2) An anecdote told by Cicero in the _Res Publica_ (1st century BC).

(3) True... and forgotten, even by the Catholic priests themselves.

(4) Einstein and Hawking thought so too.

* * *

**Author's note: you have probably noticed that Gilles de Rais was materialized in the real world and not inside the Cyberworld. Hakuno and Tamamo ****assumed**** that the Servants created for the Kimata Grail War could only exist in the Cyberworld, simply because they knew only the Moon Cell Grail War. Now, child sacrifices took place in the real world! Furthermore, when Hakuno used a command mark to invoke Tamamo, I did not explain what happened, only the result. In fact, the Moon Cell only connected Tamamo to Kimata's Grail. It has therefore received the abilities of the Servants of this version of the Grail War, as they can exist in both universes (virtual and physical). With Tamamo, we have now 7 Servants... but two Casters and no Saber... besides Kimata has a wish that will bring the end of the world. No wonder the Greater Grail (Moon Cell) invokes Ruler.**


	10. Chapter 10 Ancient Ruins

**Boyzilla: Yes, Ruler has a pure and innocent maiden hearth, she can't resist Hakuno Head Tilt...**

**Vladfrost08 & Neo: Why don't you write it if you have an idea of story?**

* * *

**Ancient Ruins**

* * *

Whether we look at the city of Tokyo or the Cyberworld, we were struck by the hive or anthill aspect of these large groups of individuals or avatars. Everywhere we looked, there were only busy people, always pretending to be late for an appointment.

For them, the slogan always seemed to be: "Faster". They were always in a hurry, not having time to have real friends, sacrificing their families to their work, sometimes dying of exhaustion by wanting to fulfill the goals others had set for them.

These people running after an illusion were the result of the education they had received. Since they were children, we had put them in competition. At school, in their leisure time, they had been rated, ranked according to their results, conditioned to lead a "profitable" and "competitive" adult life in accordance with the ultra-capitalist doctrine of cyberpunk Japan.

Everything had been done to sharpen their desire to obtain a better social statute, a better salary, and therefore to behave as model employees. They were also pushed to consider the other employees not as comrades but as rivals they had to supplant in order to achieve their ambitions. However, that dream was only that... because the game was distorted from the start. The best cards were dealt at birth.

* * *

For the great majority of future employees, the passage on the school benches had given them only a thin layer of education. Enough to be useful tools... not enough to question the system.  
In his book "1984", Georges Orwell explained that vocabulary conditioned the ability to conceptualize. The Newspeak, the fictitious language of the "1984" dictatorship, thus had no word for "revolt". Similarly, the low-end education provided to the future employees of cyberpunk Japan had left them with deep gaps in spelling and grammar. Unable to express abstract ideas correctly, they struggled to share them among themselves.

Only the large schools were able to acquire the skills needed to reach the highest positions. Of course, these private schools were paid for and therefore effectively reserved for senior managers who alone had the means to send their children there. Because Cyberpunk Japan was in no way a democratic society, despite an electoral system allowing everyone to vote and laws supposed to give power to the people.

In fact, people were being held back by their social background. The majority of the population could not access the functions of lawyers, judges, heads of companies or politicians owned by the most educated classes... and therefore the richest.

This system was at the origin of the power of people like Kimata.

With politicians, justice, but also the media in their hands, it was easy for them to become untouchable by making illegal any investigation into their practices.

The politicians they had placed in power had thus passed a law that protected the "business secrets" under the pretext of not interfering in the sacrosanct free competition.

Thus the ingredients of a prepared dish, such as those that employees bought for their lunch break, were given only as a "guide". The exact recipe was covered by the "business secret". This led to all conceivable abuses, such as pork fat in allegedly halal dishes, baby diapers containing sulfur, or vaccines with titanium salt as a stabilizer.

Anyone who wanted to expose this kind of corporate malfeasance ran into a wall. Even if the case ended before the judges, the leaders were rarely convicted. Most of the time, the information obtained by courageous whistleblowers was rejected because "illegally" obtained, in violation of the law of corporate secrecy. Of course, and as always in cyberpunk society, there was a double standard... After all, big companies employed corporate ninjas and hackers for the sole purpose of capturing the secrets of their rivals.

In fact, the legislative arsenal in question was not intended to prevent consortiums from sticking their noses into the affairs of their rivals. It was the role of their internal security. The real role of the Business Secrecy Act was to prohibit governments and associations from investigating the mega-corporations' practices and violations of the law. The full power of these measures, therefore, applied to ordinary individuals, employees horrified by their discoveries or white hat hackers who wished to reveal these embezzlements to the public.

When one thought about it, the leaders of the mega-corporations were touching on the depths of cynicism without any regard... They had dictated laws to governments to protect the rich who broke the laws.

* * *

Once again, Hakuno Kishinami walked the endless corridors of the Cyberworld. This world looked like a vast 3D wireframe model, the result of a scalar architecture where the points of connections of the routers were multiplied. In her hand, the girl in brown school uniform held a crystal ball that radiates an ominous light. The Seer's crystal Ball formal wear tried to map the area where Hakuno and her Kitsune Servant were walking. For the Victor of the Moon, the result was like a gigantic brain. Symbols of different colors allowed her to spot the fountains of light installed by the Moon Cell, able to heal the wounds of her Servant and recharge their reserve of _Prana_; as well as other useful installations. Most importantly, the Seer's crystal ball reported the presence of _enemy_programs_.

And they had multiplied since their previous visit...

Her violation of the "business secret" had not gone unnoticed by the cyberpolice and her description - whatever this term might cover for _enemy_programs_ \- had been transmitted throughout the Cyberworld.  
\- Kurukuru... Goshujin-sama you have become incredibly popular!

The only one not to take the tragic situation was Tamamo. In fact, Caster was literally proud to see her Master become Cyberworld Enemy #1. From her point of view, Hakuno deserved to be in first place, at any level... and the position of the most dangerous hacker of the century seemed to her to be an entirely honorable first step.

Kishinami blinked with her big brown eyes, with a head tilt...

For her part, the Victor of the Moon did not understand the reaction of the Kitsune. However, before she could ask what her Servant found so positive about this situation... Tamamo threw herself around her neck...

\- You are so cuuuuuute Goshujin-sama !

\- Thank you, Caster. But... release me, please... I can't breathe...

After all, a Servant - even of Caster class- had the strength of a dozen men, and Tamamo's displays of affection tended to be a little too enthusiastic. The Kitsune had the good taste to immediately release her Master and to look embarrassed. With her tail low, and her ears set, she was now fleeing the gaze of her master:

\- Sorry, Goshujin-sama!

Hakuno rubbed her ribs and stroked her Servant's head without a word. Immediately, the Kitsune seemed to radiate with contentment... She was changing her attitude incredibly fast. A real weather vane that turned to the slightest movement of air, Tamamo could pass from the abyss of despair to absolute bliss in a single instant...

Hakuno Kishinami did not have a great deal of personality experience, for lack of sufficient and above all representative sampling. After all, Masters and Servants of the Grail War were far from ordinary individuals. However, even in spite of her social handicap, Hakuno was beginning to understand that Tamamo was as unfit for normal life as she was...

Hakuno shook her head:

\- Caster, let's take our lead again. We risk being spotted...

But more was needed to tarnish the good mood of Tamamo no Mae:

\- All those who try to stop us will know the judgment of the gods of Izumo. One, ten, a hundred or a thousand... I would tear them to pieces. Before the eyes of her adorable husband, this humble wife is absolutely invincible.

If enthusiasm was enough to win the battles, no one would have a chance against Tamamo.

* * *

In the illusory universe of the Cyberworld, the computers-generated setting actually concealed intercontinental connections. A single door in a "place" located on a Japanese server could lead to another server located in America.

\- _Code Cast: Hack (16)_

Around Hakuno, the sumptuous and realistic decor, as well as the smiling hostesses disappeared to reveal a wireframe universe with colorful areas bordered by 3D icons, geometric figures, and interlaced codes.

Only a few insiders would have understood the meaning of the sequences of figures that were scrolling on the walls. However, the Victor of the Moon had a simple way to know everything...

_\- Code Cast: View_Status_

Immediately, everything took on a meaning... the codes were no longer simple alphanumeric abstractions, but names, abstracts, listings. The teen girl reached out and touched a connection.  
She immediately found herself in a sort of translucent tunnel.

Hakuno turned around to exchange a look with Tamamo. The Kitsune replied with a smile:

\- These large empty and majestic corridors remind me of the imperial palace...  
She waved her hand:

\- Forget it, Goshujin-sama.

Hakuno acquiesced and began to run towards the end of the passage. Around her and Tamamo were strange geometric objects that were nothing but packets of data sent from one computer to another.

Without warning the corridor disappeared to give way to another computers-generated setting. The place where they ended up looked like a tree-lined street. The buildings on both sides bore the logos of several subsidiaries of the Kimata group as well as other groups that were close to this corporation.

After learning that the ritual of invocation of a Servant had taken place the previous day, Hakuno went in search of the Heroic Spirit so invoked. Inspector Minamoto Sezuku, with all the information gleaned from their previous intrusion into Kimata's computers, had conducted his investigation. He discovered that the Corporations that were the majority shareholders of Photonic Crystal Technology Inc. and the Virtual Pleasure Company were all present on this server.

That must have meant something.

One thing that intrigued Hakuno above all... one of the mega-corporations involved had nothing to do with the Cyberworld. The CFRT was a French company specialized in tunnel drilling and mining equipment rental.

Crossing the virtual door, Hakuno entered the central computer of the CFRT. The place seemed cramped. The computer was only used for customer contact and had no access to the Dark Cyberworld. Through the judicious use of some Codes Cast, Hakuno reached the private memory area.  
Making a quick search in the files mentioning Kimata Corp., Photonic Crystal Technology Inc., and the Virtual Pleasure Company, the Victor of the moon discovered a coded file that did not resist her _Spiritron hacker_ talents.

The file in question was quite short. Obviously, the CFRT was engaged in the greatest secrecy by Kimata. In fact, in such a discreet manner that Hakuno did not discover any indication on the drill site in the databases.

Since there was still a link between the mainframe and the autonomous machines working on the tunnel drilling, Kishinami looked for a camera to activate. She finally found a small inspection robot stored and activated it. Following the roadway dug into the rock and lined with cables, the robot discovered a recent construction with secondary installations housing generators supplying power to the machines at work.

However, the end of the passage came to something... strange. The tunneling robot had drilled into a vast cave occupied by deformed buildings with impossible angles. They were adorned with statues that reminded Hakuno of African fetishes but also some sort of horrible modern paintings. You know the ones you hang on a wall before you proudly show it to a specialist... who ends up saying, "You hung it upside down".

With her hands around her neck, her chin on her shoulder, Tamamo was watching at the same time as her Master. She began to growl before rubbing her nose vigorously:

\- I do not like that at all, Goshujin-sama.

In the light of the projector walked by the inspection robot appeared a kind of Aztec teocali... as twisted sideways. Tamamo pushed a small "oh" of surprise and asked Hakuno to go back.

At the foot of the strange pyramid appeared megaliths... At least this was what Kishinami had thought at first. But her Servant was not mistaken. The robot's camera revealed that these were huge blocks of dirty ice. The graduated scale embedded in the lens of the camera made it possible to estimate the height of the obelisk frozen at less than thirty meters, for a base of three. The Victor of the Moon swallowed her saliva by understanding that the dark spot in the middle of each of them was a frozen creature. Hakuno guessed more than she could see the forms of the imprisoned creature. However, she seemed deformed... unfinished... repugnant. Fortunately, the ice was almost opaque, probably safeguarding her mental health.

"Not good...not good at all," murmured Tamamo. Hakuno turned on her Servant. The Kitsune had her ears down and her eyes hard.

\- Caster?

\- Master, zooms in on that.

With her finger, Tamamo no Mae pointed to a black mark. The camera pointed to it, revealing... a hole in the ground.

\- There was a block of ice here... but it was removed. Oh? Zoom here!

Without question, Hakuno obeyed, revealing... small objects placed on the ground around the ice megaliths. The teen girl recognized...

\- The _Elder Sign_!

Indeed, these blue stone discs each bore the design of a sort of starfish, with an eye in its center.  
\- Do you think what I think, Goshujin-sama?

\- The CFRT dug a tunnel leading to a ruin dating back to the time when the Old Ones lived on Earth...  
The Kitsune strongly approved and ended in place of her "husband":

\- ...and they took away some of the creatures the _Elder Ones_ had imprisoned.

Hakuno remained calm, continuing to stare at her Servant, but Tamamo shook her head as if she were trying to deny the testimony of her own eyes. The Victor of the Moon had rarely seen her angrier. The magic fox girl would probably have let this contained rage burst into a few heartfelt words. She could occasionally be incisive. But the virtual screen disappeared, as the light went red. Hearing an alarm ringing, Hakuno acquiesced without saying a word. They had been spotted...

By the way...

Two swirls of violet energy appeared on the ground. _Watchdogs_ came out of it. The pair of _enemy-programs_ appeared similar to dogs relooked by a cubist painter. They threw themselves on Tamamo who immediately intervened between her Master and the opponents.

Fortunately, for Hakuno's improved senses, the opponents seemed to progress in slow motion:

_[Guard]_  
Caster reacted to the mental order with vivacity. Guided by a gracious gesture of her hand, her mirror intercepted the leap of the first virtual canine. Blocked, the monster recovers, and Tamamo instantly counter-attacked with a karate chop. She had only discovered herself for a moment...

\- Kiaiii!

But the second _enemy-program_ wanted to take advantage of it. Nevertheless, it could not escape Kishinami who understood and anticipated:

_[Guard]_  
The Kitsune parry and responded with a reverse kick: "Heaven me... I hate dogs... that's my instinct! Why do men raise these filthy chip bags when there are so many adorable animals like... like foxes, for example?!"

Hakuno did not have time to answer. The two virtual dogs were already getting up to reattach.  
_[Attack]_  
Without a moment's hesitation, Caster leaps forward...

* * *

The confrontation was followed by a leak with other enemy-programs on the heels... In short, the routine...  
Tamamo and Hakuno managed to leaves behind their pursuers by hiding among the virtual visitors of an electricity company on the West Coast of the U.S.A. Master and Servant then moved away by using connections that led them to an equipped kitchen salesman, then a video game site before finding a satellite antenna that sent them back to their arrival server.

Kishinami was pretty depressed. With her arms crossed on her chest, she walked on the sidewalk of the virtual city, without looking right or left. She whispered incoherently with half incomprehensible words that were recognized here and there: "Kimata"; "_Old Ones_"; "Servant"...

Caster looked at her Master and tried to get her out of her trance. Passing Hakuno, she started on her way and called her:

\- Goshujin-sama?

But Kishinami did not seem to have heard. She shook her head, reacting to a thought she had just made, and mechanically bypassed her Servant without even noticing her.

If someone had taken a picture of Tamamo at the time, he could have made a fortune selling a picture that could soften even the hardest heart ... Indeed, the fearsome Caster seemed struck by lightning, tears were pouring down her eyelids and her ears were lying flat on her skull.

Not only was her lovely husband not listening, but she didn't even notice her... no... no... this nightmare was impossible... she would never accept it.

What a duo formed this Master and Servant! Hakuno sometimes focused so much on a problem that she forgot everything else. As for Tamamo, she needed as much attention as a little child. Let her "husband" neglect her even for a few moments and it was the end of the world.

Tamamo turned to look at Kishinami, who continued to drift away. Seeing her so deeply immersed in her thoughts made the magic fox girl angry. She caught up with the teenager in school uniform and turned her over with a hand on her shoulder:

\- Goshujin-sama!

The Victor of the Moon blinked several times. On her usually inexpressive face appeared a little surprise:  
\- Caster?

\- Ah, finally, you recognize me!

Tamamo shook her head and covered her Master with an anxious look: "I understand that you are worried. I am too... But this should not make you forget the most important...  
The Kitsune attracted the little schoolgirl against her, kissing the top of her head: "... which is that I love you and I would never let anyone hurt you. I don't care about this world and its people, but if you tell me to defend it, I will. So stop worrying and believe in me... and believe in you. My strength is you... if you doubt, I'm only half of a Kitsune."

Tamamo felt the stiffness leaving the shoulders of her "husband" as Hakuno sighed: "Thank you, I... I don't know what's happening to me."

Hakuno Kishinami had gone through the previous Grail War protected by the rules of the Moon Cell. She could not be attacked at the Tsukumihara Academy and the other Servants could only fight against hers three rounds in the labyrinth of the _Chimerical Lunar Seas_.

Except that, since her arrival in this dystopian future, there had been no safe place. Kishinami was still hiding and had even been attacked in her sleep. Above all, her instincts warned her that something terrible was coming. Kimata's grand plan still appeared as something nebulous, but they found traces of his actions on every level, all over the planet. What was he plotting? What use did he want to make of the Grail he had conceived?

Suddenly, Tamamo broke her embrace and passed her Master behind her. Hakuno looked upon the face of her Servant. The magical fox girl appeared tense to her and her eyes scanned the porch of the nearby buildings:

"Show yourself! I feel your presence!" Say Caster.

Kishinami tilts her head... which resulted in a hiccup of surprise from the person hiding in a nearby alley. Her false movement made her hit a street lamp in a metallic noise.

Tamamo made her mirror appear:

"Get out of there, Servant!"

"Wait, I'm not an enemy..."

Leaving the shadow that concealed her appeared a very young woman... who seemed hardly older than Hakuno. Her status as a Servant was made evident by the dress-armor she wore. The dark blue fabric of her outfit contrasted with the steel plates on her arms, and her legs, the metal blades that covered her belly and hips. She even wore a steel headband. On her waist, a sword belt held a blade in its sheath.

However, Tamamo noticed her amethyst-colored eyes... so pure! It did not seem that a bad thought never dyed such eyes... How to suspect bad intentions in such a person? Impossible... Then, Tamamo saw her beauty...certainly it wasn't the cuteness of her wonderful husband... but... a sort of ethereal beauty like an angel or a fey! Her long blond hair was tied into a heavy mat that fell down to her ankles, she also had a beautiful, slender figure, long legs, and a chest... almost as round as hers.

And the Kitsune instantly felt her distrust come back to burn her in the stomach. Such a beautiful woman was a danger! She could only have come to steal her great husband! Tamamo no Mae would not have confessed, even under torture... but her sudden animosity was nourished above all by a strong feeling of jealousy!

"Oh? Do you see that? So you hide in an alley and you are not an enemy. We didn't do it to a cunning fox like me, you're lying!"

The mysterious servant already had slightly red cheeks, but Caster's irony seemed particularly embarrassing for her. The eyes of the armored Servant ran through the walls of the virtual street, the doors, the windows, the sky made up of binary codes... all but the two women in front of her:

\- It's because... I came to... to talk to you. And...

\- And?

The woman in armor opened big, frantic eyes as her face turned to scarlet. If the Servant had settled at a crossroads, the cars would have stopped in front of her. She was so red that the drivers would have mistaken her for a traffic light. Her speaking became even more confused:

\- You were in each other's arms... I... I have... in the alley... because... I surprised an intimate moment. I was... ashamed and I hid.

She then tied her hands and turned her face towards the sky: "_Pardonne-moi, mon Père, parce que j'ai péché_."

Having no prejudice against the Unknown Servant, Hakuno had listened to the confused explanation. She intervened before Tamamo could continue to mock the girl who was visibly already very troubled: "You hid so as not to interrupt us?"

The Servant interrupted her prayer to acquiesce vigorously:

\- Yes, that's right.

\- Oh, thank you... who are you?

\- Servant Ruler, Jeanne d'Arc.

Hakuno turned to Tamamo:

\- Ruler?

It was a non-standard class and, apart from "Saver", Hakuno Kishinami had only ever met Heroic Spirits summoned in the seven usual classes. Caster agreed, suddenly calm:

\- Ruler is a class that cannot be invoked during the Grail Wars because it is made up of heroes who have no wishes to satisfy.

\- Then why is she here?

Hakuno's question darkens the magical fox girl:

\- Rulers are invoked only by the Grail itself... when a Servant or a Master has a wish that could bring about the end of the world!

The teenager in a brown school uniform swallowed:

\- The end of the world?

Ruler, who had finally regained her composure, replied with a nod:

\- I fear it, Hakuno Kishinami. The Moon Cell sent me to investigate the seven masters of this Grail war.

\- Seven? I thought there were only six servants!

The fox woman showed an intense surprise. Jeanne turned to her:

\- Indeed, Tamamo no Mae. Except that for the moment only two Servants have been invoked. When your Master used her mark of command to materialize you, she unintentionally changed the ritual. You are the first Caster of this conflict... but the second has since been invoked.

\- Invoked by Kimata, Hakuno intervened.

Ruler approved of:

\- Indeed.

Although interested in the conversation, Hakuno was more intrigued by Jeanne d'Arc strange knowledge:  
\- How do you know Tamamo's name and class?

Ruler smiled gently, placing her iron-gloved hand on the metal gorgerin that clicked on her neck:

\- This is a class skill: _True Name Discernment_!

Hakuno tilts her head... while Jeanne d'Arc uttered a little cry, turned red again, and coughed in her fist to hide her embarrassment. What it thrust her worried look from the young Master. Ruler looked like she had flu...

* * *

**Ruler head tilt vulnerability: 200%**


	11. Chapter 11 Endless Horrors

**Boyzilla: Yes, Hakuno has the most powerful NP: "Head Tilt Ex Rank digital class Noble Phantasm Worldwide range (internet), targets: one to 8 billiards." **

**My interpretation of Fate/ Extra is literal because... why not? **

**It's a very dangerous (un)Holy Grail War with malefic Servants and Master and a very dark atmosphere. **

**But... who cans resist Hakuno's Head Tilt?** **As soon as Cthulhu met her, he turned to candy pink, converted R'lyeth into a private beach for lovers, and started knitting.**

**Akasha Bloodriver: Tamamo est un Servant que j'adore. Elle est chaleureuse et pleine d'humour. Quant on voit son dévouement envers son master, on a du mal à croire que son alignement est Neutre Mauvais. Dans Fate/Extra Tamamo fait beaucoup pour le moral d'Hakuno.**

**Je crois que "sale type" pour désigner Kimata est un euphémisme... je pourrais dire ce que je pense de lui mais cela finirait en grossièretés. Le personnage est une fusion entre le général Yamashita, un criminel de guerre de la seconde guerre mondiale, amateur de magie noire et... John Davison Rockefeller, un des pierres capitalistes de l'histoire. Bien sûr, je n'ai pris que les mauvais côtés des deux personnages, en particulier leur cruauté, leur mépris de la personne humaine, et la soif d'or et de pouvoir qu'ils avaient en commun. **

**Tamamo est jalouse de tous les célibataires des deux sexes s'approchant à moins de vingt mètres de son "époux". Et la beauté de Jeanne mettrait des complexes à toute femme... même l'avatar d'une déesse japonaise.**

**Ce n'est pas étrange que le Moon Cell ait envoyé Jeanne. D'abord, une partie de l'affrontement a lieu dans le Monde Virtuel qui se confond avec le Seraph. Dans le monde virtuel, le Moon Cell est l'équivalent de Gaia. Il est aussi la source ultime de la technologie et de l'énergie utilisée par le Graal de Kimata, ce qui en fait un "Graal Inférieur", là où le Moon Cell est le "Graal Supérieur". Si Kimata menace le monde, il menace aussi le Moon Cell et ce dernier n'est pas tenu de rester neutre en cas de menace directe. Et Jeanne n'est pas la première carte qu'il ait jouée contre Kimata. Tu ne trouves pas étrange que la capsule d'hibernation d'Hakuno ait continué à fonctionner soixante ans sans entretien pour ressurgir pile au bon moment ?**

* * *

**Endless Horrors**

* * *

In the shadow of the Fuji-Yama, the immense megalopolis of Tokyo was illuminated by the setting sun. The glass shell of the skyscrapers seemed to have metamorphosed into molten gold, refracting the scarlet of the sun that was sinking into the horizon.

The office buildings were emptying and the employees were rushing to join their cars that were fueling huge traffic jams in the streets of the Japanese capital.  
One of the tallest buildings had the stylized K, which was the logo of the Kimata Corporation. From the top, CEO Kimata Ryuchi watched the world unfold at her feet. The world... his world... at least the world that he will one day make his own if we stopped fighting him. Idiots... supposed allies, enemies... all idiots with small ambitions... but like the despicable mosquitoes they were, they kept irritating and attacking him even if they were unable to really hurt him.

The eyes masked by the dark glasses remained indecipherable, but the man tightened his hands crossed behind his back while a pout affected the corner of his mouth. This smirk was usual. He was as if painted on his face and betrayed his permanent anger towards fools... that is everyone but himself, like the contempt he felt towards others. For him, other men were only pieces to move on the chessboard of his vast ambitions. With their own desires, he recognized only their usefulness in his designs. The rest had to be "corrected"... in his interest.

Kimata Ryuchi turned around and took a few steps into his large office until he faced Matsuo, the branch manager. The latter was on his knees between two guards in security armor, armed with assault rifles. The man had his face covered with sweat and his hands trembled. Fear? Only partially, he has the eyes of a drug addict in need. Shaken by trembling, he could not take his eyes off a silver flask placed on the office of the terrible CEO. Without the hand of one of the guards on his shoulder, he would probably have risen to take it... But in his present state of weakness, he could not fight the grip that kept him on his knee. He, therefore, contented himself with moaning without letting go of the flask, sometimes glancing at his terrible master.

Kimata was furious with Director Matsuo. He had ordered him to find Kishinami, a sixteen-year-old girl, amnesiac, and lost in an era that was not her own, it couldn't be easier! And this idiot had failed, even finding a way to lose twenty elite technoninjas and their _sensei_(1).

In spite of the dark glasses that Kimata always wore, Matsuo curled up feeling the contemptuous and furious gaze of his superior.

However... it wasn't just Matsuo's fault. Kimata Ruychi struggled to admit it - even in the secrecy of his thoughts- nevertheless, he had underestimated Kishinami Hakuno. She summoned a Servant. Succeeding at first glance what he had failed to do after years of attempts, despite all the resources invested by his corporation in this project.

"Matsuo-san, it pains me to see you in this state of weakness."

The branch manager shivered when he heard Kimata's falsely sorrowful voice. He swallowed:  
"Please... the serum..."

Kimata deliberately turned to the silver bottle. He poured a little amber liquid into a tiny cup. Matsuo followed each of his gestures with the attention of someone whose life depended on the mysterious liquid. A glimmer of hope had appeared in this look... however, fear had not left him. His intelligence had been wrecked because of the drug withdrawals, but what he had left of reason made him fear to face some unhealthy game.

Nevertheless, Kimata put the cup in his hands, and Matuso swallowed the drink with one stroke.

Immediately all signs of debilitation disappeared. His hands ceased to tremble, reason, and intelligence returned in his eyes.

Without haste, Kimata bypassed his work table to sit in the large leather chair. His gaze then weighed on his subordinate, always on his knees. He then had a thin smile:

"I am not used to spending my generosity without counting, Matsuo-san. I am a businessman. You had clear instructions from me; you knew the cost of your failure. However, for this one and only time, I decided to make an exception."

Director Matsuo's heartfelt look of gratitude did not seem to move the CEO:

"You can leave my office and return to your regular job!"

"_Arigato-gozaimasu_, _Kimata-san_. I will not disappoint you, I will find Kishinami and..."

"No, I take care of her personally. Please leave!"

Matsuo bowed deeply and went out, taking with him the two guards who had not been relieved of their mission to watch him.

The door had just closed that a sort of shimmer was happening near the office. Leaving his astral state, Gilles de Rais materialized.

As usual, the Caster wore his black cult dresses decorated with an inverted cross under a cape whose red and black collar resembled a sea anemone. Bluebeard picked up the cup abandoned by Matsuo, noting that the metal was now distorted, twisted by the branch manager's grip... a force far exceeding that of an ordinary man.

The globular eyes of the Servant rolled each to one side, in a rather disgusting manner. One looked at the cup in his hand, while the other looked at the silver flask. A hand adorned with long black nails rubbed his chin:

"What singular drug is this? My friend François never told me about something so singular... All the withdrawal symptoms disappeared in an instant. And this strength... "

Kimata Ryuchi looked at his Servant without his face showing any emotion:

"This is the wine of Kathulos the Egyptian. This wine... this serum, rather, is a very ancient secret. It would have been invented by sorcerers of the time of Atlantis. At first, it is a perfect drug, without any side effects. Those who use it regularly gain strength, intelligence, immunity to disease, quicker recovery from injuries, and recovery from fatigue in record time. Even aging seems to be on hold."

As the Japanese had stopped speaking, Gilles de Rais slowly approved:

"I see. But after the show that was just offered to us, I guess what's wrong with this Atlantean serum."  
Kimata confirmed it:

"Kathulos wine has a huge flaw. If you drink it once, you can't live without it. You become a slave of the wine... and therefore a slave of the supplier. The serum is a very safe way to ensure the loyalty of your staff."

Caster Gilles de Rais was practically devoid of morality. Moreover, he took pleasure in making people suffer. In particular, he loved to play with his victims. Despair was never more delectable than when he succeeded hope. And the greater the hope offered, the deeper the despair. The wine of Kathulos the Egyptian was, therefore, the kind of stratagem that he fully approved:

"Magnificent, Master, I see here again a proof that we are made to agree! Do you have time for a little talk about art?"

Despite Kimata Ryuchi's commanding smile to his Servant, the CEO felt a violent irritation. That idiot Servant... and saying he wanted to summon the great Abdul Alhazred...

"Even if I had the time, don't you have an urgent task in hand?"

Kimata's reply doused the enthusiasm of the Caster. He raised both arms, his toad eyes opening and closing convulsively:

"Master, I have to admit that I can't do anything. My crystal ball shows no image, no matter how hard I try. I have to admit that Kishinami Hakuno is protected by some kind of _magecraft_ that forbids us to observe her."

In front of Kimata stood the reason for the kindness he had shown Matsuo. He too had misjudged Kishinami... and that this pathetic Servant was the result.

"Go on, Caster, if you can't find her in the real world, search her in the Cyberworld! "

With a gesture of the hand, Gilles de Rais made the Prelati's book appear and bowed his hand to the chest:  
"Yes, Master!"

The next moment he disappeared in the form of purple digital particles that were absorbed by the television screen embedded in the wall.

* * *

The legend of Gilles de Rais made him a war chief, tactician, and strategist. Invoked as a Caster, he had not received any of his purely martial skills. Nevertheless, there remained a mind accustomed to the wiles and reasoning of the art of war.

The Hundred Years' War was best known for its battles and sieges of cities and castles. Except that there had been only four major battles in 116 years of conflict (Crecy, Poitier, Agincourt, Castillon). As for the sieges, Gilles de Rais had participated in the defense of Orleans, the most famous of them, where the legend of Jeanne d'Arc had begun.

Most of the clashes, however, took place on a completely different scale. Almost always beaten during the organized battles, the French had resisted by resorting to guerrilla tactics (2). Gilles de Rais had known Jean du Beuil (3), the... let's say the leader of the Commandos of Charles VII. Listening to John recount his exploits had allowed the Servant to learn much about the goals of a small group attacking an enemy stronger than them.

Having listened to his Master explain his plans, and having read the reports on the previous incursions of this "Hakuno Kishinami", Gilles de Rais had understood that this Master was eager for information that she would search them in Kimata's computers. All he had to do was monitor the consortium's network until Kishinami showed up.

* * *

Once again, Hakuno Kishinami walked in the infinite corridors of the virtual universe. This time, however, it was in known territory, since it was the connection between the Virtual Pleasures Company and Photonic Crystal Technology Inc.

During her previous visit to PCT Inc. Hakuno had not had time to search the entire plant and its computers, in particular, the process of creating avatars made of _Spiritron_ was very intriguing to the teen girl. After all, she had been created by similar technology. And without Tamamo's wish, she would not have found herself in the body of the "real" Hakuno.

With the skill of a confirmed _Spiritron Hacker_, Kishinami entered the main computer of PCT Inc. The place has already received her visit, she bypassed the clients' reception area using the passwords of an employee.

Hakuno, Tamamo, and Jeanne were now inside the PCT's internal network. The young Master turned to Ruler to explain all the discoveries she had made with the help of her Servant.  
Jeanne d'Arc listened peacefully, simply nodding her head to show that she understood. Now that the Holy Grail War was being discussed, the young French woman gave an impression of calm and experience that contrasted with the embarrassment she had previously shown. Finally, Jeanne asked a question:

"Master Kishinami, do you have any evidence that Ryuchi Kimata wants to fulfill a dangerous wish for Earth or Moon Cell?"

The young Master slowly shook her head before taking a look at her Servant. Busy getting her hair done with gestures worthy of a cat, Tamamo stopped to reply:

"Kimata is one of those 100% detestable characters found in every corrupt society. You know the kind that says to an individual on a torture easel: "Why are you yelling? I don't hurt!" It's not just selfish. For him, the others do not really exist. There is this... but also the fact that he wanted to invoke Abdul Alhazred. Such an evil Servant in the hands of such a ruthless Master would have been a catastrophe." Caster stopped to hug Hakuno, the face radiant with love and pride. "Fortunately my lovely husband prevented this catastrophe."

Leaning on the stem of her banner, for now, wrapped, Jeanne coughed in her fist gloved with iron, keeping her eyes turned towards the ground, her cheeks A little red-colored :

"Yes, it would have been worrisome, but it is not evidence."

The ears quivering with indignation, Tamamo sighed:

"Let's say it is a _prima facie_ evidence. And you were summoned after his Servant so we can assume that this was in reaction to his arrival..."

For some reason, Tamamo no Mae seemed particularly interested in confronting Ruler. And as the latter constantly reaffirmed her neutrality and refused to accept the reasoning of the magical foxgirl, the tension between the two women was perceptible. Hakuno hastened to remind them of their objective:  
"We're here to look for evidence."

She reached out a hand:

_"Code Cast: Hack(16)"_

The white energy ball that left her hand hit a virtual panel controlling the factory's cameras. Immediately virtual windows appeared, showing the area where the physical characteristics of the individuals were recorded to create their avatars.

Surrounded by a circle of 3D cameras, a naked woman was in the spotlight... Hakuno could not see any more. Tamamo had just thrown herself upon her, closing her eyes with her hands:

"Kiaaaaa! Goshujin-sama?! I know that you are at this age where we feel a great attraction for women... but if you want to see a naked woman so much; your humble wife is there to fulfill her marital duties! No need to go on... on this kind of shameful site to watch... this kind of bad-life women with the body reconstructed by surgery. Your humble wife is a pure maiden whose charms are only the fruit of Mother Nature! "

"Uh... Caster... I'm a girl! "

"All the more reason!"

With both hands on her face, Jeanne had turned scarlet... once again the conversation had derailed towards a subject classified 18 years and over, to the great confusion of the young saint who certainly deserved more the title of "pure girl" than Tamamo no Mae. However, a familiar voice startled her:

"Jeanne!"  
Ruler turned around to face a tall man dominating her with a good head. He wore a luxurious dress of ancient design; sanguineous scarlet patterns adorned the pitch-black fabric. He donned an inky black cassock, and an evil aura reeled about it. Also, the patterns dyed crimson red on the cloth was as if stained with blood.

But the pale and thin face was more than recognizable:

"Gilles?"

* * *

This was the first confrontation between two rival Servants in the Kimata Grail War. Ironically, two Caster-class Servants were facing each other... more ironically; the so-called "Gilles" paid no attention to Tamamo. For once, she did not complain, more busy listening to the exchange between the Caster and Jeanne d'Arc.

The horrible individual looked at the saint with a dazzling air. He seemed overwhelmed by a violent emotion and tears filled his eyelashes. He was just repeating Ruler's name in a tone that reflected unbelief. As he stretched out his hands to Jeanne d'Arc with his nails painted black, the Saint dispelled her banner and left him her own hands, which he immediately held, as if in ecstasy. A sad smile appeared on Ruler's face:

"Yes, it's me... Caster". She glanced briefly at Hakuno, biting her lips realizing that she had previously called her former companion by his first name... betraying crucial information about the Servant's identity! As the referee of the Holy Grail War, Jeanne was supposed to be neutral. Involuntarily, she had just helped the Master of Tamamo no Mae. "Yes, it's me, Caster, you don't dream." She added.

Bluebeard shook his head as if to put his ideas in place:

"Why are you here?"

The Maid of Orleans shook her head seriously:

"I was summoned as a Ruler to serve as a referee to this conflict. My presence means that one of the Masters of the Grail War has a wish that endangers the world. I am here to uphold the rules and ensure that the _innocents_ are not put at risk."

Jeanne had particularly insisted on the word "innocents" and the expression of Gilles was troubled.

He let go of the saint's hands and took a step back:

"So you know... "

The Saint approved gravely:

"Everything, my old friend, and I was very upset... however, we should not talk about it here, others are listening."

But Gilles did not care at all. All air of kindness, joy, and sweetness had left his features. His frog eyes seemed ready to come out of his sockets and he was frothing with rage:

"God abandoned you, Jeanne; He let you die an unworthy death. Charles VII also abandoned you. How could the supposed good God have been so horrible? God has forsaken us... you, me... and all the others. From heaven, he watches suffering befall the world and men and does nothing. And the King? What were we to him? You, me, and Jacques Coeur (4)? Used, and then thrown away when we were no longer useful to him! I avenged you! I have inflicted as much suffering as possible on France to punish God and the king!"

Ruler looked at the Caster with a sad expression. However, she spoke firmly:

"I never asked to be avenged especially not in this way. More than anything, during my life, I loved God and my king. I got scared at the stake and felt abandoned during my trial... because I'm human. However, I never wanted anyone to kill on my behalf... especially not the innocent people I wanted to protect."

But Caster Gilles had listened to nothing. He seemed completely obsessed by Jeanne, delirious and insane:

"Jeanne, together, let us profanes the work of God, let us prove that He is only a helpless figure who looks at His creation without feeling pity or interest for His creatures condemned to suffer for eternity."  
Jeanne's banner reappeared in her hand. Spread-out, it radiated a white light that did not dazzle. Although not a breath of wind ever came into the virtual universe, the banner quietly slammed, releasing pale sparks that extinguished before touching the ground. Firmly, the saint struck the ground with her standard and sounded a gong-like sound:

"I must refuse, Caster. I am the arbiter of this Grail War. As such, I cannot take sides for one camp or another, I am sorry."

"Why!" roared Caster Gilles, foaming-at-the-mouth. "Why, after all this time, why refuse to understand my suffering?"

Jeanne simply shook her head, her face decided, now holding her standard with two hands:

"I'm sorry," she said firmly.

Only, Caster Gilles merely uttered a glee of rage, brandishing a filthy book in his hand. Behind him appeared a phenomenon similar to the concentric circles of a stone thrown into the water. Except that it was the air itself that deformed itself so... from the center of each of its phenomena, arises a black tentacle whose underside was covered with suction cups. The tentacles twisted to capture Ruler. Nevertheless, Jeanne had not been taken by surprise. The young French girl jumped from place to place, dodging the tentacles or blocking them by skillfully handling her standard. The latter swirled so quickly in her hands, which it's appeared only as a wheel of white light.

Hakuno turned to her Servant:

"Caster comes in!"

The magical foxgirl sighed, one hand on her hip:

"Personally, I don't see the point. This conflict has nothing to do with the Grail War, right?"  
"Caster..."  
The Kitsune looked at her Master and pink hearts appeared in her eyes:

"Kiaaaiii! Goshujin-sama?! When you have this expression, it is impossible for your wife to resist your orders. "

Sighing once again, she made her mirror appear and put herself in a fighting position, her tail beating nervously. Before the fox woman leaps into battle, Hakuno grabs a _Formal Wear_ resembling a magnificent sword called _Celestial Blade_:

"_Code Cast: Gain_Str(32)"_

A digital effect resembling a column of green energy appeared under Tamamo's feet and enveloped her. Her strength increased, the Servant rushed into contact, striking the tentacles with claws, fists, and feet.

Totally focused on Jeanne, Gilles had paid no attention to the presence of the Master and the enemy Servant. It was only by seeing Tamamo carve out the tentacles that he realized her existence. His toad eyes began to roll furiously and Bluebeard uttered a new gleam of rage:

"How... how dare you stand between me and Jeanne! Perish... perish... perish... perish... perish a million times!"

Brandishing his cursed book whose pages turned by themselves, he dispelled the tentacles... but what replaced them was not more pleasant, quite the contrary: a flood of lovecraftian eldritch horrors, some sort of demonic amphibious familiars with a lot of tentacles. They threw themselves en masse on Tamamo who had to retreat. Momentarily forgotten, Jeanne jumped aside to watch the confrontation.  
While guiding the magical foxgirl by her mental orders, Hakuno turned to Ruler:

"Jeanne, help my Servant, she is in trouble!"

Unfortunately, the Saint shook her head with sadness:

"I apologize, Master Kishinami. But what I said to the other Caster also applies to you. I cannot take sides in a fight between two Servants."

"But we intervened in this fight to help you!"

The incredulous exclamation of the high school girl in brown uniform made Jeanne d'Arc very uncomfortable:  
"I am the referee; I cannot violate the rules that I am responsible for defending. Until you prove that the Master of the other Caster is not a danger to the world, I have no right to fight alongside you. It is so!"

The situation was unbelievable. However, Hakuno was not offended. She had been with the Servants for as long as her memory... a little over three months. Incarnations of legends, their behavior was often absurd because they continued to live according to principles or rules that had no meaning for a long time. There was a reason that a Heroic Spirit had to be summoned by a person living in the present to appear. As creatures belonging to a bygone era (or not yet happened in the case of the Heroic Spirits called from the future), the Servants had no right to interfere in the events of the present. The present belonged to those who lived here. The Heroic Spirits could only be invoked as Servant... or by the play of Alaya, Gaia, or the Moon Cell, and in this case, they defended these entities and what they represented. The Ruler Class Servants were an exception in the sense that they did not have a Master. However, as a result, the rule of non-intervention had to be even stricter for them.

Touching the medallion on her chest, Hakuno used a new Code Cast. A column of violet energy enveloped Tamamo. _Gain_con(32)_ increased her resistance to damage, somewhat protecting the Kitsune from the horde of monsters that kept attacking her.

_[Skill]_  
The mental order of her Master was followed by an almost instantaneous execution. An _ofuda_ appeared between the fingers of the Kitsune who threw it against a wave of monsters.

_"Curse: Fiery Heaven!"_

The paper marked with _kanji_ ignited, calling a tornado of fire from the sky. Falling in the group of horrors, the storm cremated them. But Caster Gilles continued endlessly to invoke monsters. Fortunately for Hakuno, the wrath of the enemy Caster was entirely directed against Tamamo. The dementia state of the Servant had prevented him from becoming aware of the presence of the Master... though much more vulnerable than the Kitsune.

The fight seemed very badly off. Whatever number of lovecraftian horrors was destroyed by Tamamo no Mae, even more arose to replace them. The Kitsune was trying to reach their summoner, but the flood of monsters continually pushed her away. Despite her supernatural vitality, the magical foxgirl weakened. Hakuno had used a first _Ether Crystal_ to heal her wounds... Nevertheless, the teenager in high school uniform did not have an unlimited reserve.

The fight was interrupted by the alarm which suddenly began to sound.

The Servants' confrontation had not escaped the security systems that protected the Photonic Crystal Technology Inc. plant. The defenses intervened in the form of a cloud of _Enemy_programs_ of different types. Not being programmed to recognize Caster Gilles or his monsters as allies, they attacked them like Jeanne, Tamamo... and Hakuno. The latter was saved only by the appearance of an ice wall that isolated her from the attackers.

Taking her Master in her arms, the fox woman took advantage of the diversion to escape. Ruler followed them.

Behind them, Gilles de Rais had regained his calm:

"I'll see you again, Jeanne. And this time, I'll make you understand!"

He teleported away on this comforting thought.

* * *

(1) Master, professor (in Japanese).

(2) Truthful, starting from Charles V the Sage the French avoid the great battles to disperse into small groups and attack simultaneously in several points. This tactic was born under the impetus of Bertrand du Guesclin by relying on the advantages of the Frenchmen: better knowledge of the terrain, numerical superiority, and support from the local population oppressed by the Englishmen.

(3) Admiral of France, he was a specialist in nocturnal handouts and the organization of revolts. Note that Jean du Beuil was also a novelist.

(4) Treasurer of Charles VII, he financed the king's wars. Instead of paying him back, the king found it easier to convict him of imaginary crimes. It should be noted that Jacques Coeur was also an alchemist and would make an excellent Caster.


	12. Chapter 12 Superstition Mountains

**Boyzilla:**** For a third-rate Servant, Caster Gilles is truly aggressive and disruptive. Fortunately, there is no real reason to fear that Kimata will let him practice his "art". In spite of all its faults, his Master has clearly more concrete objectives.**

**Author Note: With this new chapter begins a second part with the discovery of new places, new characters... and a new Servant.**

* * *

**Superstition Mountains**

* * *

The world of the end of the twenty-first century was depopulated. The population had almost halved compared to the end of the twentieth century.

Of course, it was easy to forget when you were in the heart of a metropolis as vast as Tokyo, because Japan was a relatively spared region. The Third and Fourth World Wars took place mainly in Europe and North America.

The United States had been the big loser of the Fourth World Wars. It would now be fairer to call them the Disunited States of America...

As Washington was a radioactive ruin, the capital had been moved to Chicago. Only, the current "president" was a dictator who ruled only half of the former country, as well as a part of Canada (just as devastated as the USA). The rest was a heterogeneous set of city-states, baronies, territorial enclaves led by corporations... and especially many empty and abandoned territories. Some were being colonized by the nearby powers like what was left of Texas. Claimed by the US, the territory was defended by a coalition of bandits and nomadic tribes. Which made this state a war zone... fueled by arms dealers who provided for the needs of both sides with perfect cynicism.

Arizona, on the other hand, was forgotten by all. Without irrigation, the state was once again a vast desert that interested no one. There lived only a few Amerindian populations returned to their nomadic way of life after the collapse of the system of reserves and stubborn populations that survived where agriculture was possible, with a standard of living reminiscent of the mid-19th century.

* * *

An all-terrain car was moving along a road that was almost erased. The vehicle struggled at the slightest rut but progressed valiantly. Its motor was electric and the roof covered with photoelectric cells was enough to recharge the batteries... if we waited several hours.  
Around the 4X4... a red desert dotted with gray-green bushes, piles of red stones and hills that looked gray-green. Not a tree, not an animal, and a blinding blue sky were a raging sun shone.

Tohsaka Tomoko drove as she could, worse than good, and from time to time, the one she knew only under the name of "Caster" swore. In fact, her bad mood was only growing... probably because she was forced to use her Shapeshift ability to take on a human aspect... and it reminded her of very unhappy memories.

Tired of hearing the Servant's whining, Tomoko stopped his vehicle and turned around:  
"I'm hot too! I'm sweaty too! I'm tired too... and unlike you, I have no reason to be here, Caster! I really wonder why I wanted to go with you!"

Sitting in the back, squeezing her sweaty Master against her, Tamamo blinked, surprised by the young woman's aggressiveness. Tomoko usually spoke little and only when she had something to say. Perhaps because she was one of the last _Magi_ of this dying world, and perpetuated the Tohsaka lineage, Tomoko was thoughtful, rarely acting without a good reason.

Tamamo no Mae wanted to reply, but Jeanne d'Arc turned around:

"Miss Tohsaka is right, there is no point in complaining. We are in the same situation as you and we cannot make it rain. Take your trouble in patience until the night, Caster-san.

If we were to define the character of Tamamo no Mae of a single word, "selfish" would be the most appropriate. The kitsune had a Neutral Evil alignment, after all. Even her undeniable attachment to her Master was a manifestation of possessiveness.

Hakuno Kishinami remained silent but reached out to caress Tamamo's head. The Servant seemed to melt away, losing all desire for confrontation:

"All right, all right... I'll shut up."

Then she turned to Hakuno:

"Goshujin-sama, your devoted wife asks for compensation for everything she suffers out of love. As soon as we return to civilization, you will have to take your wife to a beach resort and taste her lovely cooking... Oh, yes, finally our honeymoon. "

Just by the evocation of what would happen next, pink hearts replaced her pupils. Unable to resist any longer, she threw herself at the neck of her master with a small shriek. As Tamamo rubbed her head against that of her "husband", Jeanne veiled her eyes with one hand, red with confusion:

"Caster-san, stop this behavior... uh... sham... shameless. You are not alone with your Master!"

Tamamo made an adorable pout, and then sighed:

"It is your fault that I am not with my beloved husband in our love nest. It was you who forced us to bring you here, wasn't it?"

The fourth and quietest woman in the car, Hakuno Kishinami, breathed a sigh. In fact, this time she agreed with her Servant. It was all Ruler's fault...

* * *

All this deserves a little flashback, doesn't it? So let's go back a few days, to the Yamada house, more precisely in the "love nest" of Tamamo and Hakuno, that is to say, the secret cellar that served as their hiding place.

* * *

Minamoto Sezuku tried not to look towards Jeanne d'Arc. As a materialistic Japanese and especially as a policeman, he had trouble admitting that he was in the presence of an authentic saint, especially since it was an adorable girl wearing an armor that seemed out of a cosplay photoshoot. There was always something profoundly disturbing about these "Servants"... they never looked like what history held from them! It seems that this mysterious _Throne of Heroes_ collected heroes and dressed them like an otaku with his Echi anime figurines.

It would be better if the faithful of the Catholic Church never met the Servants created from the legends of their saints...

"Minamoto-san?"  
Sezuku coughed in his fist, chasing away the parasitic thoughts before turning to Kishinami:

"Yes, Hakuno-chan?"

"You were about to explain what you learned about the CFRT."

Sezuku nodded, trying to focus on the present problem:

"As you have discovered, CFRT is a French company specialized in tunnel drilling and mining equipment rental. They deal with Kimata on several projects. But only two are covered by the "law of business secrecy". I learned from my relationship that the two projects in question were in North America. However, I have located only one of them: In central Arizona, in the mountain range southeast of Phoenix, near the Superstition Mountains."

The name surprised Hakuno who tilted his head to the side:

"Superstition Mountains?"

While Sezuku, Jeanne, and Tomoko suddenly turned their eyes away, as if we were pointing a lamp at them, Tamamo uttered a little cry and surrounded the shoulders of his Master while singing a litany, something like "Goshujin-sama is extra-super-ultra-cutie!"

It took a while for Sezuku to answer:

It is the legendary home of the Apache Thunder God. And it's also the setting for many stories about lost gold mines. Many people have died seeking treasure in the Superstition Mountains. Whether their fate was at the hands of hostiles Apaches, deranged mountain men, or... some says vengeful spirits. More commonly, they died because of their own inability to cope with the challenges of the harsh terrain."

Jeanne d'Arc rose up: "I absolutely must go and see!"

* * *

Back to the present.

* * *

Hakuno, shaken by the bumps of the road, unhook the can hanging in front of her and drank a sip of lukewarm water... trying to think of something other than a fresh river... not a pond... even a puddle.

Dust came in through the open windows. The car, of course, did not have air conditioning... or rather did not have it anymore. They were lucky enough to have been able to rent this mother's coupe that allowed them to move forward in the Arizona desert.

In a metallic groaning, the car stopped, pulling Hakuno out of her daydream. At her side, Tamamo stood up:

"What's going on?"

Tomoko simply pointed to the red light on the dashboard:

"The batteries need to recharge."

One of the main reasons for humanity's current stagnation was the depletion of fossil fuels. Without fossil energy, only solar, wind, nuclear was left because the use of synthetic fuels was too expensive to manufacture.

In the 19th century, oil was an abundant, inexpensive material, known since ancient times and which shriveled from crevices in the ground. So all you had to do was bending over and pick up some. It led to the invention of the oil lamp and the first exploitation of "petroleum" (in Latin: _petra oleum, _stone oil) or "lightning fuel".

However, we will discover other more impressive properties. The oil energy index is 5 to 6, which means it produces 5 to 6 times more energy than it consumes during operation and refining. Cheap, easily available, operated in countries where the labor is (strangely) always profitable, it is liquid at room temperature and can, therefore, be easily transported by tanker and pipeline.

The oil is not heavy, it burns easily, can enter a small engine to explode and produce energy (according to the principle of the explosion engine). Oil is at the origin of the formidable market of the individual automobile and beyond "the American way of life".

Furthermore, the range of products derived from petroleum is infinite and enters into every aspect of life: plastics, nitrogen fertilizers, medicines, insecticides, electronic components, engine oils, greases...

Then the oil became scarce...

By researching the history of oil, Hakuno had discovered the economic theories of Thomas Malthus.

To summarize Malthusianism, take a field capable of supporting a hundred cows. You put a hundred and ten cows there... there will be a famine that will last until the ten cows that are in excess die.

As cruel as it may seem, this is natural selection, an essential law of the living world that Malthus considered inviolable.

But oil was a miracle product because it freed humanity from this law. Thanks to fertilizers, insecticides, farm machinery, the food from one end of the world to the other, oil put an end to the famines and made it possible to deceive Malthus's disastrous forecasts.

At least as long as there was oil...

Because the last drop refined and consumed, the world was prey to hunger for energy that soon became a real hunger: no more tractors, no more fertilizer, no more insecticides... This was the cause of the Fourth World War.

Natural selection played and the supernumerary humans died. The rest adapted, as always... the human species is tenacious.

As she was thinking about it, Hakuno sat in the shadow of their car, waiting for the electric batteries to recharge. As unable to do without her, Tamamo never left her. She spoke and spoke, her Master listened, sometimes approving of a few words. Suddenly, Tamamo stopped at the sight of a column of dust.

"Goshujin-sama, what is this?"

Standing in an instant, the winner of the Grail War opened the door, searched in her bag, and pulled out the binoculars which she pointed towards the phenomenon. The Master quickly discerned a metallic shine... a truck almost reduced to wreckage was heading towards them, raising red dust. As their own vehicle, its roof was covered with a solar panel from which protruded the long antenna of a radio. It also distinguished a winch at the front as well as a bulldozer blade. On the sides, Kishinami saw water jerry cans.

"We have a guest... Caster calls the others."

As the servant complied, the rolling wreckage changed course towards them. No doubt their own vehicle had to shine as brightly as theirs under the sun's rays and be recognizable from afar.  
The four women approached, contemplating the truck with a little worry. The vehicle stopped in a final burst of red dust and the doors slammed. Two men went down.

Immediately, Hakuno knew that the newcomers were bad news. The beard and hair dyed red, with ear and nose piercings, they wore denim trousers, a t-shirt with areoles of perspiration and sleeveless jackets decorated with... Nazi military decorations. They were holding assault rifles.

The two admirers of the Third Reich looked at the four women standing before them with greedy looks:  
"Hey, Jerry looks at what falls from heaven, they are real beauties... especially the blonde".

Jeanne d'Arc wearing shorts that revealed her long legs and with a simple T-shirt, obviously, she attracted attention. Sixteen years old, blonde, with a long mat and beautiful purple eyes, it was a superb example of feminine beauty.

The man named Jerry strongly approved:

"The other three are Chinese... but I've never seen one with breasts like this."

He pointed to Tamamo, dressed in highly low-cut summer clothes. The kitsune only replied with an icy look.

"Yeah, if we sell them in Phoenix we can make a lot of money!"

Without realizing the danger, the first man lowered his weapon to get out of handcuffs:

"Well, let it be done without resistance, it would be a shame to spoil the merchandise..."  
But Tamamo was not at all the kind to be handcuffed by this kind of useless human trash. She hitting the neo-Nazi in the chest. Then as he bowed with pain, she finished him with a blow to the neck. The second bandit held up his weapon but did not have time to use it. Ruler had struck him with a turned kick.  
"I had never seen cockroaches with a human face before," Tamamo said.

Jeanne d'Arc approved:

"During the Hundred Years' War, I often had big troubles with the Écorcheurs, mercenaries, and brigands who plundered the countryside, raped and killed. These... neo-Nazis look like the troops of Dimanche le Loup (1)."

Ruler joined hands to make a silent prayer. More practical, Caster searched the vehicle before smashing the radio and its engine:

"That way they won't be able to follow us or call for help." She handed the car battery to Tomoko: "With this extra battery our range will be increased."

The journalist agreed, still shocked by the brief explosion of violence she had just witnessed.

After this rather unpleasant meeting, the quartet of young women was for once in perfect harmony, it was better not to linger in such a wrong side of Arizona.

* * *

The old car was back on the road. There were only a few rusty road signs and chipped strips of asphalt to remind us that they were on Arizona State Route 188. After several hours of driving, the battery of their vehicle again showed signs of slowing.

Even in a sky dominated by a scorching sun, solar could not replace oil.

As buildings had just appeared, they decided to stop there. It was an old gas station. The rusty pumps looked like sculptures of modern art, and the general store offered an aspect of desolation. The windows were broken, the entrance door blocked in the open position. The red sand of the desert had begun to cover the whole and cacti were growing in what had been the parking lot.

The most impressive was the long line of car carcasses that stretched for miles, forming a huge traffic jam like frozen in time.

Leaving Tomoko replacing the battery and Jeanne to protect her, Tamamo and Hakuno set out to visit the ruins.

The supermarket had been almost completely emptied, but the cans littered the ground, the mess, and even the upside-down shelves suggested that the premises had been looted. Uncomfortable, Kishinami approached the press department. The looters had abandoned all kinds of magazines. Although dusty, they were readable. She took one and turned a few pages. The magazine was a little over forty years old. Several articles concerned the war and the internal problems of the U.S.A. However, the rest dealt with lighter and gentles subjects.

The manager of the supermarket once placed this magazine on the shelves of his store... and the following week the general store was looted and abandoned. The collapse was brutal, almost without notice.

Caster kicked down a door, leading to the gas station offices. Hakuno wanted to follow her Servant, but she retained her. The Kitsune bore a troubled expression:

"Master, there's a human skeleton, you don't need to see that."

"Oh... can you tell me what he died of?"

The servant went in, and her voice came to her Master from within:

"He was shot in the head. I found a second skeleton further away... he had a gun. They're wearing uniform debris with the gas station logo. I think its two employees."

Of course, the owner of the gas station had tried to defend his property when looters had stormed. And he was killed with one of his employees...

With the intellectual address that had enabled her to discover the identity of the enemy Servants from slight clues, Hakuno reconstructed in thought the last days of the service station and - by extension- those of civilization in this part of the planet.

The institutions had probably managed to maintain calm and an illusion of normality until the last minute. Then there was no gas at the pump and no possibility to fill them again...

People had looked for isolated gas stations to refuel. They came here en masse and, of course, emptied the fuel tank. After that...they were probably desperate people. They had lost their jobs and riots had to have broken out everywhere. The gas at the station was exhausted, and they had looted the premises and killed the employees.

In the end, civilization is only a thin veneer. If we give men enough reason, they kill without hesitating...

* * *

Gloomy, the four girls remained silent. All we could hear was the metallic squeaking of their vehicle, which was struggling in this desert, seeming to extend to infinity. The sun was disappearing to the west.  
Leaning on the G.P.S., a map on her knees, Jeanne stood up and pointed to a peak that stood above the mountains:

"It's time to leave the road. If I'm not mistaken, this mountain is Bluff Spring Trail, one of the main peaks of the Superstition Mountains."

Tomoko agreed to it.

However, as their car left the road to engage in the wilderness, Tamamo turned to look behind them:  
"We are being followed!"

Indeed, Kishinami discovered about ten vehicles. It was pick-up exactly like that of the neo-Nazis. In better shape than their own car, the pick-ups quickly won over them. They looked threatening...

The sound of gunfire reached their ears, confirming their dangerousness.

Fortunately, their trucks were as shaken by the bumps in the field as their own car and it was difficult to aim. The bullets were lost in the scenery, chopping cacti and ricocheting against the red cliffs of the mountain range.

Nevertheless, their luck would not last; the neo-Nazis would eventually catch up with them.  
Tamamo took the front. She ordered Tomoko to stop and went out. An _ofuda_ materialized between her fingers:

"_Curse: Chaos Heaven!"_

A tornado suddenly appeared where the ideogram paper fell. Subjected to the will of his summoner, the deadly whirlwind threw itself on a jeep, tore it to the ground, and smashed it against a cliff before throwing itself against the next vehicle and making it suffer the same fate.

In less than a minute, all the bandits were neutralized!

"Yaaah, Goshujin-sama, have you seen how your wife is good at cleaning?!"

* * *

Although their little expedition to the Superstition Mountains was improvised in a matter of days, neither Tomoko nor Hakuno was the kind to leave without a plan. So they looked to see if there was a human community that could welcome them to the region.

Apart from the CFRT miners, archaeologists were present. They studied petroglyphs, the remains of mining establishments, as well as the remains of the 19th-century Indian Wars.

To the surprise of Tohsaka Tomoko, the archaeologist in charge of this mission was one of her former teachers called Llewelyn Petrie-Smith. For the ordinary world, he was a somewhat dreamy historian and archaeologist... but Petrie-Smith was mostly one of the last living _Magi_.

After another hour on the road and when the stars had replaced the blue sky, the headlights of their old car illuminated a new fence solidly stretched on metal pillars. Several guards kept a door and checked their identity.

As expected, it was only a formality.

A few minutes later, Tomoko introduced them to her teacher.

Llewelyn Petrie-Smith was an elderly man, his hair entirely gray, wearing round iron-rimmed glasses completely out of date. He was dressed in brown trousers and jacket, shapeless.

Petrie-Smith was housed in a rather comfortable prefabricated building. He had prepared a four-bedroom and a meal was waiting for them.

As they did honor the meal, the archaeologist questioned his student about the reasons for their presence here.

"A pre-human city here?"

His exclamation was interrogative but contained no surprise. Tomoko frowned:

"Do you know anything, Professor?"

The old _Magus_ had a smile on his face:

"Come on, as you think I'm not here for the Lost Dutchman gold mine. Have you heard of the Apache legends about the area?"

Almost automatically, Hakuno replied:

"The mountains would be the domain of their god of thunder, right?"

The teenager had the gift of quickly memorizing information. Like any teacher who respected himself, Petrie-Smith loved good students, and he smiled at her:

"Of course, Miss Kishinami. But there are more intriguing legends. Some Apaches say that the hole leading down to the Underworld is in this mountain range. During the Indians Wars, the region was the center of some strangest occults manifestations... and before them...

Petrie-Smith paused for a moment:

"Have you heard of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado?"

None of the people present knew this name and Petrie-Smith leaned comfortably in his chair while lighting his pipe:

He quickly recounted the career of this Conquistador, quite classic for this kind of character: conqueror of the New World, he suffered from the thirst for gold at the last degree and had strayed to New Mexico with a whole expedition in search of "Seven Cities of Gold" called Cibola. They were described by Cabeza de Vaca as "A galaxy of cities, the inhabitant of which wore civilized raiment, lived in palaces ornamented with sapphires and turquoises, and possessed gold without end_ the Seven Cities of Cibola."

"In fact," he concluded, "Coronado conquered some Zuni villages and returned to Mexico with about a hundred survivors, the others having died in the fighting against the Indians or of thirst."

Hakuno tilted her head, making Petrie-Smith cough, having swallowed sideways:

"You think Cibola is here?"

The _Magus_ smiled. Decidedly this little one pleased him, she seems to always quickly understand:

"Yes, my dear, Coronado left a memory of his expedition and says he had his native guide executed because he was trying to mislead them."

Clever as usual, Tamamo crossed her arms, and retorted in a mocking tone:

"Since Coronado was looking for a massive gold city, it is certain that being led to a Zuni village must have been a big disappointment. Nevertheless, this kind of story is always grossly exaggerated. He could very well have arrived at the source of the legend... and finding only an ordinary village believing he was deceived."

Petrie-Smith approved:

"This is exactly the opinion of contemporary historians. However, I found the origin of the legend of Cibola. It was peddled to the Spaniards by a French monk called Marc of Nice. This Franciscan had come to Mexico to convert the Indians. He was then part of the Pizarro expedition to Peru. As he belonged to a pacifist order, he openly opposed the cruel methods of the Spaniards. It was then that he was in the north of Mexico that Marc de Nice met Coronado and told him the legend of Cibola. After the return of Coronado's expedition, he openly admits he lied."

Tamamo laughed at him:

"Oh? So this whole thing is all about lies? The guide and this Franciscan monk would both be lying? So I really don't see why we're wasting our time talking about Cibola!"

Professor Petrie-Smith smiled once again and rekindled his pipe:

"My own quest for Cibola began when I came across a text by Don Carlos Sequenza, the first Mexican archaeologist. He had access to the archives of Mexico City before a revolt in the 18th century destroyed them. He would have read the original statements of Marc de Nice, a few years before the revolts burned the archives. According to Sequenza, Marc de Nice lied but not about the existence of Cibola... he lied about its location, sending Coronado too far west. The Franciscan monk wanted to avoid a new massacre of the natives by the Spaniards. Based on Don Carlos Sequenza's notes, I arrived here... and I think the CFRT miners had access to the same information. After all, after his death, all the affairs of Marc de Nice were sent back to his country of origin. It is quite possible that a duplicate of his testimony slept in some French library and was found. "

As Tomoko and Hakuno seemed to have trouble keeping their eyes open, he stood up:

"The last piece of the puzzle was provided to me by the diary of a 19th-century gold digger. I'll have it read to you tomorrow. You deserved to sleep, the day was probably exhausting."

Although tired, Hakuno had one last question:

"Professor Petrie-Smith, who are these neo-Nazis who attacked us, why are they here?"

"Ah... them? They've only been here for a few days and are closer and closer to our facilities. They call themselves "Werewolf". I think they were hired by the CFRT to drive us out of the mountains, a very dangerous group... perhaps linked to the Karotechia."

Hakuno tilted her head sideways, fortunately - this time- the archaeologist was not smoking his pipe, which prevented him from choking:

"The Karotechia?"

"This is a secret society controlled by immortal... or rather undead Nazis. But worse still they are manipulated by Nyarlathotep, an Old One!"

* * *

(1) The Écorcheurs (Skinners) were bands of mercenaries (in time of war) and brigands (in time of peace) that were rampant in France during the Hundred Years' War. They formed the bulk of the army of the king of France who was more or less dependent on them in his war against the English. Charles VII finally sent them to besiege the city of Strasbourg (then Austrian possession) where they were killed en masse. The survivors were either sentenced to death or integrated into the first permanent army in the history of France, "Les Compagnies d'Ordonnance". Dimanche le Loup was one of the worst captains of the Écorcheurs. He owed his nickname "le Loup" (the Wolf) to the fact that he was... cannibal. Imagine Annibal Lecter with an army.


	13. Chapter 13 Massacre Grounds

**Snow: BB is a character of Fate/ Extra CCC... and swimsuit BB is a character of Fate/ Grand Order... in another universe. **_**Music of the Spheres**_** is a sequel of Fate/ Extra.**

**Sakaewmatsui: Thank you for your continued support. **

**Ttttt: "Nyarlatotep is an Outer God" According to whom? ****Lovecraft never explained precisely what is the difference between "Outer God" and "Old Ones". He was also opposed to the idea of being too descriptive and too precise. The Lovecraftian horror rests on the evocation of unknown, incomprehensible things. Precisely classifying each creature in its small box well bordered by the narrow limits of human reason is totally contrary to the very idea of Lovecraftian horror. In Lovecraft's stories, the horror of the hero grows as he discovers the true nature of the universe. Until at last the power of fear, the notion of its nothingness, breaks out in him. **

**" All my stories are based on the fundamental idea that the laws, interests, and emotions that are common to humanity have no value or meaning of a cosmic point of view" (H.P. Lovecraft).**

**Going back to the point, I went to two specialized sites to gather the opinions of "specialists". I got about the same answer. This is the simplified version unless you want me to use terms like "hypostasis" or "Eidolon"? The "Outer Gods" are "Old Ones" that are too "big" to materialize on Earth. But Nyarlathotep materializes on Earth... No, only his "Masks". So Nyarlatotep as Crawling Chaos is an "Outer God", the Masks of Nyarlathotep (Black Pharaoh, Bloody Tongue, etc...) are "Old Ones".**

**Boyzilla: You're not wrong. Unfortunately, there's still too much oil to develop cost-effective alternatives. And since politicians are paid by oil lobbies, there will be an ecological catastrophe before any change.**

**Yes, the Harway consortium is the number one villain in the world of Fate/Extra. They completed the rampage of the world.**

**Thank you, my friend.**

* * *

**Massacre Grounds**

* * *

The place was... fantastic.

Covered by the starry mantle of the night, the desert was more than black and white. The moon reduced to a crescent lit hills made of red rocks where only a few cacti grew. You could feel the mineral immensity of the mountains nearby, but the greats rocks disappeared in the shadow.

Near the ruins of a village, a teenager stood her arms along her body, her gaze lost in the distance. She wore a brown school uniform on black tights; the only touch of color was the blue ribbon that closed the collar of her jacket.

Hakuno was not really conscious, her mind was numb. The idea of moving did not come to her. Yet she knew that she was sleeping... or that she should have slept... that this place wasn't real.

Suddenly a hand touched her shoulder, docile the Master turned.

Without emotion, she faced an... Apache shaman.

The man had terracotta skin, except the top of his face, painted blue. A fabric band sewn with colored beads held his long, black, braided hair that fell as low as his hips. He was dressed in suede clothing, dyed, and adorned. His belt held the sheath of a Bowie knife adorned with colored glass beads.

The magnetic eyes of the Amerindian communicated an inaudible order to Hakuno which immediately began to move.

Did she walk a thousand years... or ten minutes?

Time no longer existed. In her state of stupor, Kishinami felt almost nothing. She couldn't even wonder what was happening to her.

Finally, the Apache stopped near an old dead tree and made a gesture of the hand, freeing the spirit of Hakuno. As the fog over his mind dissipated, the young Master could hear his words:

"My name is Go Khla Yeh, I am a Medicine Man of the Apache tribe of Bedonkohe. I have been sleeping under the earth for two hundred years now. Yet my long sleep was troubled. An evil power is awakened in the Superstition Mountains. I have chosen you to be our savior. We are here at the border of the Shadows' Territory... the Sheol. The souls of the victims of the creature wander here. But beware; every living thing that reaches the Territory of the Shadows is for them a legitimate prey. You will have to face them. If you win, I will bind the Tribe of Shadows and you can use it against the creature that imprisoned them here. If you lose, you'll be their booty."

Hakuno Kishinami blinked and then tilted her head to the side. She was so adorable that the Amerindian's strangled.

"Gokaye-san?"  
A little recovered from his cough attack, the shaman corrected her pronunciation:

"No, the name is Go Khla Yeh"

"Gokayeh-san?"  
"No, Go Khla Yeh" spells the Apache, clearly separating the syllables.

"Goyakeh-san?"  
He sighed...

"Call me Geronimo."

The Apache raised an eyebrow waiting more or less for the teenager to utter a cry of surprise but... Hakuno was Japanese, she knew little about the history of the U.S.A. Also, she simply agreed:

"Geronimo-san, I have a question."

"Hurry up, the Shadow Tribe is coming. You only have time for one question."

Kishinami nodded resolutely and asked what this evil force was that was haunting Superstition Mountains. Geronimo remained thoughtful for a moment:

"Under the mountains, an ancient monster had been imprisoned since immemorial time. Called by dreams, men from the south built a city to worship it. The imprisoned creature flattered their lower instincts and they began to sacrifice other men to please it. When the Apache arrived in the region (1) following the bison, the inhabitants of the city seized some of them and they became sacrifices for the Black Forces of the Afterlife. However, the Great Spirit did not tolerate this gangrene any longer. In a prodigious movement of the terrain, the mountains closed on the city and suffocated its cruel inhabitants."

Geronimo interrupted his account at this point:

"The Shadow Tribe is near. We must prepare you to face them. First, call your Servant."  
"Caster?"  
"Yes, only the songs of a shaman, or the Whitemen Magecraft, can affect pure spirits. Your Servant is bound to your soul. Just concentrate and call Caster."

* * *

The invocation had been easy. As Geronimo had explained, the bond she shared with Tamamo was in her soul. All she had to do was concentrate and feel it and... just call her Servant.

The most difficult came then...

Sleepy, Tamamo hugged her purring... and wanted to go back to sleep. Tamamo could be obstinate... and her physical strength was phenomenal.

It took the intervention of Geronimo for Caster to understand that it was not a dream. And then... Hakuno had to intervene to prevent Tamamo no Mae from utterly destroying the shaman in a fit of fury... She seemed to have taken very badly the "abduction" of her "husband"!

In short...

The time taken to calm her had been lacking for further explanations. Geronimo had left them at the foot of the dead tree, insisting that they do not move away from it because it was a sacred site that would protect them.

Hakuno slipped a glance towards Tamamo. The Kitsune was holding her arms crossed, in an obvious pouting posture. In addition, her tail was low and beating slowly... a sign of anger.

The magical foxgirl opened an eye:

"Master, you should learn to say 'no'. It's a simple word; you know... even kids know it."

The Master reached out and stroked her Servant between the ears. Except that Tamamo was furious that her "husband" agreed to participate in a fight against Apache ghosts. She was really angry... very angry... and...

She jumped on Hakuno's neck.

"Goshujin-sama!"  
But how do you stay mad when you had such a lovely Master?

Hakuno Kishinami clumsily closed her arms around Caster's shoulders, a little to give her back her embrace, but above all to keep her balance. Hakuno showed a little embarrassment... her eyes roamed the landscape. Since Geronimo's departure, a frigid mist had invaded the desert and spectral lights appeared at times. The phenomenon was not natural. It was enough to make sure to look at the perfect circle formed by the fog, pushed back three meters from the dead tree.  
"Um... Caster... is that you realize that we are in a landscape worthy of a horror movie and that there are in the mist of... things watching us?"

Tamamo turned around, looking with a challenging look at the creatures in the fog:

"If they dare to interrupt my moment of tenderness with my adored husband, they will discover that they are not the most terrifying thing to be in the territory of shadows, because I am not the soul without the body of a human wandering between the world of the dead and the world of the living. I am one of the worst monsters in the history of Japan."

Caster then had an absolutely adorable smile but also... how can I say? At that moment, though not the target of his Servant's challenge, Hakuno was under tremendous pressure.

"Oh, I forgot. The souls... I eat them."

... The reaction was immediate. The mist reflected almost as quickly as a galloping horse, carrying with it glimmers, ghosts and monsters. A pure panic reaction.

Smiling wide enough to reveal his fangs, Tamamo again tied her arms around his Master:  
"Problem solved. Hug?"

Hakuno blinked, amazed by the rapidity of her Servant's changes in behavior.

* * *

The gloomy wind began to roar through the ruined houses. The violent squalls made her clothes clack around Hakuno, forcing her to raise her hands to protect her face.

Suddenly, a group of Apaches appeared in the main street. The men looked at them with their crazy, hallucinated eyes. Dressed in tanned pelts, they held spears and bows in their hands. However, they were not living. An aura of an unhealthy green fluttered around them and their bodies were translucent. The buildings behind them were clearly distinguishable. As they ran towards the sacred tree, the Master saw them crossing the fence surrounding the garden of a house as if the obstacle were not there.

Truly classical ghosts.

Their presence was far more impressive than the pathetic creatures who had tried to frighten them. As they rushed towards them, weapons brandished, Hakuno awkwardly recoiled, feeling all color disappear from her face. But Tamamo grabs her wrist:

"Do not move, Master. If you leave the protection of the sacred tree, you become their prey."

Hakuno swallowed and nodded, unable to speak.

Anyway, the ghosts stopped like other spirits, unable to cross the sacred circle. The Master was able to detail the Apache warriors. They looked like mummies with parchment skin and skeletal body.  
The one who seemed to lead them approached the limits of the Bounded Field.

"The Tribe of Shadows has wandered for centuries in this territory between life and death, unable to know rest. We seize the souls of the lonely mortals who are lost in these places. Since you have entered the Territory of Shadows, you are prey worthy of being hunted."

Raising his hand he pointed Tamamo to two of his warriors and the Kitsune answered to the challenge, coming out of the sacred circle.

Focusing on her mental connection, Hakuno gave her orders.

[Break]  
Caster leaps forward, uniting her two fists to strike with the force of a hammer:

"Iaaaaaaaaaaaa!"  
The Apache ghost was catapulted back. His comrade stiffened, raising his spear high.

[Attack]  
**Eightfold Blessings of Amaterasu on the Weight Stone under the Sunlit Watery Heavens**, the ornate mirror of Tamamo, appeared before her hand. With an elegant gesture of the hand, she projected it towards her opponent.

Struck in the chest, he collapsed on his knees.

The first opponent was already returning to the attack.

[Guard]  
The spear was pushed back by the mirror, while Tamamo twirled on one foot, with the grace of a ballerina... throwing the other feet in the enemy's face:

"Nano!"  
The first opponent fell to the ground and disappeared, leaving behind him only a gelatinous puddle. The second enemy raised his spear again, but - for Hakuno- his gestures were slow...

[Attack]  
The mirror of Amaterasu returns in a sparkling bow striking him at the head. The enemy staggered as he retreated. The shimmering disc returned and struck him behind his knees, throwing the ghost to the ground. He immediately rose up and armed his arm... his spear accumulating enormous power.  
[Skill]  
Tamamo grabs a paper decorated with ideograms:

"Apothic Cave"

Leaping, the foxgirl landed on her feet and raised her mirror as a shield. Before it appeared a sort of scarlet seal. The spear thrown by the ghost broke into it, in a powerful explosion... which slightly wounded Caster. Fortunately, most of the energy was absorbed by the defensive spell.

Tensing her hands on her chest, Hakuno decided to end the fight in one shot:

[Skill]  
Tamamo no Mae seized a new ofuda which she threw at the enemy:

"Curse: Fiery Heaven".

A hurricane of fire fell from the sky, enveloping the ghost... which disappeared.

* * *

The fight had been brief but intense. Tamamo had not emerged intact and she seemed breathless her face sweating.

Opposite, the defeat of his two warriors seemed to make their leader terribly angry:

"The dead will not be deprived of their spoils!"

Faster than his men, he threw his spear before Hakuno could even warn Caster. The weapon spun into a graceful bow, straight to her chest...

But suddenly the spear stopped hanging between heaven and earth. In front of Hakuno Kishinami had just appeared Geronimo and it was his hand that had just stopped the deadly projectile a few centimeters from her throat.

"Enough, warriors, you have been defeated. Spirits witness your defeat, so you must submit to your victor."  
He turned to Hakuno and... grimaced as Tamamo threw herself on her master, her eyes were full of tears:  
"Goshujin-sama!"

It was necessary to wait until the Kitsune made sure that her "husband" was not injured...and it took a while since Hakuno had to struggle to escape a removal of clothing for "medical cause" (no, Tamamo was absolutely not taking advantage of the situation...).

Finally, the magical foxgirl calmed down enough so that Geronimo could explain:

"The ordeal you have just passed through was necessary. Only you would be unable to undo the dark forces that lie dormant in these mountains. I don't know anything about what's buried under the city. Just that this is a creature from another world that was imprisoned long before the age of men. We should wish that this monster be imprisoned forever... alas, this being can influence the minds of men to pervert them. This is how he got the souls of these poor people."

With a gesture of his hand, he showed the silent specters that continued to surround them.

"When White Men started digging mine shafts and tunnels, they threatened to release the monster for the first time. But the Apache remembered the hidden city and the monster its builders worshipped. We slaughtered the miners. Now other Whites Men have come and the terror is awakened. I am now too weak to oppose it. The evil power threatens to destroy everything by trying to get out of his grave. Our talk is coming to an end; I can't force the barriers of time any longer. I return you to your time, Hakuno Kishinami. You must absolutely stop this terror before it is released. Otherwise, it will spread horror and destruction throughout the world. But you can't do it without help."  
The shaman took out a wand engraved with Indian symbols. At his sight, the ghosts showed signs of fear and anger. Geronimo gave it to the teenager in a brown school uniform:

"This wand will give you once, and only once, the help of the Shadow Tribe. When you are in danger, throw it over your enemies."

Then, the leader of the ghosts spoke:

"You can use the fetish as you like. But remember that it is your vital energy that will allow us to manifest. It is therefore at your own risk that you will call upon us."

As the ghosts left the ruined village, Geronimo turned one last time to Hakuno:

"Take the chief's advice; use the fetish only when you have no other choice."

Before Kishinami could answer, he disappeared. A moment later, everything became black... the young Master felt as if she had fallen into a bottomless pit.

* * *

Hakuno opened her eyes and looked at the worried faces circle leaning over her. Professor Petrie-Smith sighed with relief:

"Great God, we couldn't wake you up. You were struggling like in a nightmare, with your hands tense on that wand."

Tomoko intervened:

"Caster was also affected by the phenomenon."

The kitsune stretched herself, yawned, arching without shame... seeming to have forgotten that her T-shirt was her only nightwear:

"We had an interesting experience. An Apache shaman who died centuries ago invited us to a small party."  
Tomoko, Jeanne, and Llewelyn Petrie-Smith exchanged troubled glances:

"I think you have a lot to tell us."

* * *

While Hakuno Kishinami finished telling the strange "dream" she ever had. Professor Petrie-Smith examined under a magnifying glass the fetish that the Master had brought back from her strange odyssey.  
He nodded :

"This object is a flat rod made of solid wood and ash. It is covered along its entire length with entangled animal engravings. The shaman who gave it to you can only be that same Geronimo famous for his participation in the Indian Wars. He was the last revolted Indian in this region of America. Still today he is a symbol of the struggle for the rights of the Indians. And is gift is a kind of fetish."  
Hakuno frowned:

"What is a fetish?"

Llewelyn Petrie-Smith took a book from a shelf. Since these were no longer manufactured, it was of course a vintage one. In this case, a copy of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 19th printing, 1974, which he read aloud:

"**Fe-tish** _also_ **fe-tich**\'fe-tish...\ n... **1:** an object... believed to have magical powers... **2:** An object of unreasoning devotion or concern..."

Tamamo's eyes lit up strangely:

"Fetish? Do I have to make a new outfit with leather and chains?"

As Tomoko put her hand on her face in the classic Facepalm position, shaking her head, Professor Petrie-Smith looked at Caster with an air of outrage:

"No... I'm talking about the first definition of the word."

Only Jeanne d'Arc and Hakuno Kishinami had understood nothing. It must be said that the first is an official saint, celebrated on May 30 in the Catholic calendar, and the second was as innocent as an angel.  
Professor Petrie-Smith, having regained his calm, then began to explain as archaeologist and Magus. Fetishes are Native American magic items fashioned from the physicals remains of an animal and mystically charged with one or more the traits of that animal. After an animal dies a Shaman can perform a ritual in which he asks the spirit's permission to use small parts of the body in ritual creation of fetishes.

Nevertheless, the wand was not an ordinary fetish. First, it was partly made up of human ashes. Then, the creation ritual had demanded that Tamamo defeat the specters to bind them to the wand. The bound spirits were therefore constrained. And the spirits are quite upset when someone abusing their gifts.

The old man wiped his round glasses and began to look for his pipe in the deformed pockets of his wrinkled jacket:

"It certainly took a major reason for Geronimo to misuse spirits gifts. Because the consequences of stealing more powers to spirits than permitted are called "Bad Medicine". It will result in bad things and say consequences for the transgressor."

Tamamo seemed worried:

"Will Hakuno also suffer the consequences of this "Bad Medicine"?

Busy cleaning his pipe, Petrie-Smith shrugged his shoulders:

"The use of the fetish can be dangerous as the leader of the tribe of shadows explained it. But the most important is the _intention_. Using the fetish for a bad reason could provoke the wrath of the spirits. Fortunately, the object is for one use only. This reduces bad usage as much as it could be."

Without paying attention to Caster's scandalized pout, angry that one could only suggest that her "husband" might misuse the Mystic Code, Llewelyn Petrie-Smith picked up the rod and examined it again:  
"In any case, this fetish can only be used in this region."

Jeanne was astonished:

"How do you know, Professor?"

He got up to get the keys to his car:

"They say a drawing is better than a long explanation."

* * *

An old car was rumbling under the heat to melt the lead. The crushed landscape of light was red under an infinitely blue sky. There seemed to be only these two colors.

The driving wheels struggled to negotiate the bottom of a deep canyon, littered with stones of all sizes.  
Suddenly, in a last whirlwind of dust, the vehicle stopped. The doors slammed.

Removing his worn felt, Llewelyn Petrie-Smith sponged his forehead before turning towards the east wall. Many petroglyphs were discernible:

"We are in the Labarge Canyon. Here you can see the famous Inscription Rock. Miss Kishinami, compare the engravings on the stone and those on the fetish."

The victor of the Moon Cell Grail War frowned. The symbols were identical, especially the wide spiral at the top of the Mystic Code. An identical drawing was in the center of Inscription Rock.

"Do you know what this spiral represents?"

Professor Petrie-Smith took a map from the glove box of the car and spread it on the hood. His finger landed on the Labarge Canyon where they were, then pointed to another corkscrew-shaped canyon:  
"One of the many superstitions that give the name to these mountains is that Inscription Rock would be a map and that spiral would be this canyon. After that, it is generally concluded that this is where the Lost Dutchman Mine is located... Many have searched the canyon without finding anything."

Tamamo crossed her arms with a determined air:

"Let's go check it out. We are Magi, not some dirty miners."

Llewelyn Petrie-Smith shook his head:

"Unfortunately, the French miners have settled there and they do not allow visits. Not to mention that the Werewolves' gang roams this part of the mountains."

They talked for a few more minutes then drove back. On their way to the archeologist's encampment, they crossed another canyon and Petrie-Smith showed them the most remarkable places: Needle Canyon, Blacktop Mountain, Weaver's needle, Elephant Butte...

As they came out of the mountains, Hakuno stood up in her chair pointing to a dead tree:

"This is where we were last night!"

At her side, Caster inspected the terrain and confirmed:

"It is true that it looks like it... but there is no village."

Professor Petrie-Smith stopped the car and went out with a pair of binoculars. The desert landscape was cut by a river that flowed only in rainy weather. It was surrounded by more extensive vegetation and the only road in the area crossed it on a bridge.

"Miss Kishinami, where was the village in your dream?"

She designated the foot of an overhanging peak at the beginning of East Boulder Canyon.

"Interesting... you couldn't have known."

"Know what?" asked Caster.

"Here was a miner's village in the Spanish and Mexican era. The mines found themselves at the foot of the small peak and were reopened by the Americans much later. Where were you when you met the Shadow Tribe?"

Hakuno reached out to the foot of the great mountain to the south. Llewelyn Petrie-Smith approved of a simple head movement:

"During the 1800's the Perrata family worked seventeen mines in the Superstitions, taking silver, gold, and copper back to their estate in Mexico. But, in 1848 the Apaches ambushed their gold train and massacred all the party in this plain of dust, including the family chief don Miguel Perrada. Still today, we find mule shoes and canteen scattered throughout this portion of the desert. Moreover, it is called Massacre Grounds".

There was a moment of silence, as Hakuno realized how this almost three centuries old violence still permeated Massacre Grounds when seen from the Territory of Shadows.

No doubt that Jeanne felt it also because she dropped down on her knees and joining her hands:

"Let us pray for the rest of these poor souls."

* * *

(1) Apache dialects belonging to a linguistic family spoken in Alaska. It is thought that they arrived in Arizona in the middle of the sixteenth century. Given the relative lack of interest of archaeologists for the plains Indians and even more the lack of identifiable material testimonies, little is known. The first text mentioning the Apaches, by the hand of Coronado, dates from 1541.

* * *

**Author's Note: Is Tamamo terribly adorable or adorably terrible?**


	14. Chapter 14 Lost Dutchman's Mine

**Boyzilla: ****Hakuno is a true heroine, wherever she goes the worst things happen and she becomes the last bulwark of humanity. Hard to be a hero!**

* * *

**Lost Dutchman's Mine**

* * *

The Petrie-Smith group was essentially made up of ordinary archaeologists, most of them just students who came to excavate the archaeological sites of the Superstition Mountains.  
For now, they were exploiting two. Their base camp of Massacre Ground occupied mainly mines dating from the Spanish and Mexican colonial era, abandoned to the annexation of the region by the U.S.A.  
But they were also interested in a much smaller site in Needle Canyon. A minor camp of little importance which - according to Professor Petrie-Smith- would have been that of Jacob Waltz, the legendary "Dutchman".

On their knees on the ground, archaeology students had dug trenches and wells in the red soil shoveling the compact and hard soil with... spoons or even toothbrushes, putting it all in sieves. They collected small objects which they handed over to their teachers who measured them, photographed them from every angle and inspected them. On a large table, old coins, nails, charcoal, antique tin boxes were lined.

Silently, Jeanne d'Arc listened to the discussions with interest. On her face was a mixture of misunderstanding and application. A simple shepherdess appointed by Saint Catherine, Saint Margaret, and the Archangel Saint Michael to liberate the kingdom of France, Jeanne had been chosen for her faith (1), and her strength of character... not for her knowledge. She was illiterate and all the letters she had sent to the king of England and to the regent of Bedford (2) had been dictated to her secretary. Nevertheless, Jeanne was far from being stupid and appreciated the archaeologists' conversation... even if she did not understand half of it.

The attitude of Caster, the second servant present in the tent, could have been more different. Lying on a table, she slept with her head resting on her arms crossed. Having hidden her fox characteristics, Tamamo resembled almost ordinary Japanese. Nevertheless, seeing her smile in her sleep, Jeanne had no trouble imagining her shivering ears as the Servant had a pleasant dream... As Caster waved slightly, she began to speak in her sleep:

"Goshujin-sama... oh... how enterprising you are!"

A little red appeared on the cheeks of Jeanne who crossed herself... refusing to imagine the content of the dreams of Tamamo no Mae.

* * *

Between the two women, a teenage girl in summer clothes was reading a book...or rather a notebook of very old appearance. The pages were yellowed and crisp, covered with lines of elegant handwriting but difficult to decipher. The ink had faded to the point of being almost illegible.  
Wearing surgeon's gloves, to avoid damaging the old notebook, Hakuno Kishinami turned one page after the other. The story would have made an excellent horror book... yet it was an intimate notebook belonging to Gideon Spilett, a 19th-century mining engineer.

It all began as an ordinary story, stories of miners, difficulties of daily life until Spilett was injured in a landslide caused by the torrential rains that devastated Arizona in 1891. At the Phoenix hospital, he shared the room of a German (3) emigrant in his eighties called Jacob Waltz. A flood had taken his farm away, leaving him with pneumonia.

Dying, Waltz was delirious about a gold mine near Apache Junction. Driven off by the Indian wars, ruined and aging, Waltz had never been able to return to that place.

Several pages of the notebook were covered with transcriptions of the dying man's words. Spilett then tried to find meaning for them. The German immigrant had delivered a real track play, signaling recognizable places in what was now called the Superstition Mountains. Nevertheless, he was delirious. The old miner mixed events, abruptly interrupting to sleep and then waking up to resume his story at another point. However, in his delusion, the old miner remains gold-focused and Waltz kept repeating the same elements. Spilett drew an approximate route that began "at the old Spanish mines" which could only be the exploitation of Don Miguel Peralta.

In the months that followed, Spilett, infected with Waltz's gold fever, set out to search for the Lost Dutchman's Mine.

The engineer finally discovered the mine early in 1892 and began digging in February of that year. At that moment, things started to get... scary.

* * *

Journal of Gideon Spilett

23 March 1892

The house was damaged by the earthquake that shook the area. A wall and part of the roof collapsed. The miners' barracks were also affected. The people of the area began to talk about the Indian curse and tell stories of the disappearances of gold seekers, especially the ghost of Don Miguel Perralta that would haunt East Boulder Canyon. Nonsense! For all the educated people, it is obvious that we were the victim of an earthquake.

25 March 1892

For the first time since the disaster, I was able to examine Dutchman's Mine. Curiously, the mine seems completely untouched, as well as the natural caves in which we ended up. But I could not explore any further because a vile creeping entity rushed after me. Luckily, I had my trusty Colt on me and I filled it with bullets. It took five bullets for this thing to stop moving. Quite shaken by this encounter, I decided to turn around... especially since I had the impression that a malicious presence was watching me from a natural gallery.

26 March 1892

All the mechanisms suddenly stopped. Panicked, the miners wanted to flee the mountains. Only, they returned after several hours completely dazed, unable to remember what had happened to them after they left the village. Since then, an oppressive atmosphere has weighed on us.

27 March 1892

... I saw them... masses teeming with tentacles... eyes... dreadful beings... inconceivable to mortal minds. They attacked during the night. The miners are in their power, they attacked me... I only survived by using my weapon! God forgive me!

29 March 1892

For a week, since the earthquake, we've been cut off from the outside world. Nobody came into the mountains, nobody came out. Humans and animals disappear... every night... the fearsome entities that play with us wander in the light of the stars fleeing the sun. These monsters devour animals and enslave men, turning them into flesh puppets. Last night I was attacked again. As long as I have cartridges left, I can defend myself... but when I don't have more bullets? I dare no longer sleep and watch from dusk to dawn, the gun in the hand. The others do as I do. Yet every night a barrack is stormed and its occupants kidnapped.

30 March 1892

I can't take it anymore, we have to act. It all started with the gallery that led to the natural caves. I am convinced that we released something that was buried there. I'm gonna hang some dynamite with me and blow up the passage, hoping that's enough to stop these horrors. God takes pity on us if I fail.

* * *

Hakuno stood up and put the notebook back in the plastic case that protected it from the wear and tear of time. The young Master rose to approach Professor Petrie-Smith. Petrie-Smith saw her arrive and abandoned his students to approach her:

"So it's interesting, isn't it?"

Kishinami acquiesced without showing much emotion. However, one thing intrigued her:

"Where did you find this book?"

"After much research... In fact, it was in the Clocktower library in London and then... it passed from hand to hand for years."

Hakuno tilted her head:

"The Clocktower?"

The old scholar put his hand on his face...

"Stop doing that, girl... I'm too old for such emotions!"

The response of the girl was a new head tilt accompanied by a questioning but silent look, Kishinami spoke little. Llewelyn Petrie-Smith sighed and preferred to resume his explanation rather than explain why her head tilt was dangerous for his tired heart:

"Miss Kishinami, do you know the Clocktower?"

After an affirmative nod from the big browns eyed teenager, Petrie-Smith continued:

"So you know that they were self-appointed protectors of the _Magi_ society, guardians of their laws and especially of the main one of them: hiding the moonlit world from ordinary humans. The awakening of what was sleeping in the Superstition Mountains worried the Clocktower who surrounded the area with a _Bounded Field_ preventing the approach of the Lost Dutchman's Mine. This probably explains why 9,000 people a year have gone looking for this mine, the most famous "fairy tale" in the U.S.A., without ever finding it. Then... there was the catastrophe of the 1970s, the reversal of poles, the disappearance of _ley lines_ and _mana_... and the end of the _Bounded Field_ surrounding the Superstition Mountains. The _Magi_ turned to the digital _Magecraft_, becoming _Wizards_ \- like you- and the Clocktower disappeared. The Clocktower archives and library were looted by the Harweys, then either destroyed or dispersed during the Fourth World War. I found Gideon Spilett's notebook by chance, during my research on Cibola. "

Hakuno blinked:

"Is there a connection between Cibola and the Lost Dutchman's Mine?"

Petrie-Smith shrugged:

"I guess so. Both are mentioned in the same place and both famous for their wealth of gold, the adornments of the inhabitants of Cibola, those who so excited the imagination of Coronado, may have been made from the gold of the deposit later found by Waltz. In view of what Geronimo explained to you, Cibola was destroyed or rather buried by a landslide. When Gideon Spilett dug his own galleries, he ended up in natural caves. Like him, I suppose the miners released creatures that were sealed here, probably during the landslide that destroyed Cibola. And I suppose they're servants of the entity that the Apache considered their enemy.

Hakuno looked down, gazing at the ground without seeing it... she reflected. Her mind, accustomed to discovering the true identity of Servant, could deduce from the facts little clues. She acquiesced. Professor Petrie-Smith's explanation made sense.

"In any case, this notebook is our best clue to finding entry to Cibola."

Hakuno then turned to Jeanne d'Arc who had listened to the conversation in silence:

"And this will allow us to prove that Kimata and her allies are dangerous."

Petrie-Smith was about to speak again when a distant noise made him frown. A gunshot... not one... a real gunfight was heard in the distance, mixing automatic weapons and solitary detonations that were to be produced by handguns.

The archaeologist rushed outside, followed by Hakuno, Tamamo (awakened by the shooting), and Jeanne. The excavation site was surrounded by a strong wire fence topped with barbed wire. At the four corners of this perimeter, watchtowers welcomed armed guards. In a region abandoned by the states and where we met only nomads and looters, it was not an unnecessary precaution.

With guns in hand, security officers were listening to the shooting with concern.

Petrie-Smith ran to the guard post at the gate and made radio contact with his base camp. Fortunately, the latter was not attacked. A little reassured, he returned to Hakuno:

"I do not know who is fighting against whom... But - apart from us- there are only two groups in these mountains: the Werewolves and the French miners. Even if the fighting involves an outside group, one of them is bound to be in the fight."

The words of the archaeologist also reassured Hakuno. She was worried about Tomoko, staying at the main camp. Ruler agreed and spoke:

"The shots were fired from over there."

She pointed to the north-east. The archaeologist looked at the canyon that she indicated and then turned on the saint:

"Are you sure?"

Jeanne had an almost happy smile:

"Firearms already existed in my time, and I have often guided troops into shootings. I am rarely wrong."  
The archaeologist acquiesced reluctantly:

"But I hope you're wrong... the miners' camp is in that direction... and that's also where the Lost Dutchman's Mine is."

Hakuno felt her stomach tighten. Facing Archer and Julius B. Harvey had sharpened her survival instinct. She always felt trouble coming... but the pressure she felt at that moment exceeded the hostility of Julius after his "return". And at that moment, Li Shuwen's Master was almost as Berserker as is Servant, mad with grief and pain... Hakuno was sure of it. There was something really abnormal and unhealthy going on in the mountains.

* * *

After a restless but uneventful night, Hakuno, Tamamo, and Jeanne prepared to leave for the Lost Dutchman's Mine. As the two Servants were preparing their knapsacks, Tomoko approached the Master. The Tohsaka's heir handed an envelope of paper to Kishinami:

"Take this, hoping it will protect you from the Forces of Evil."

Intrigued, Hakuno opened the envelope to discover a terracotta amulet engraved with a pentacle. On paper, instructions are written to use this _Mystic Code_. It was used to protect its bearer from spiritual attacks and curses.

Professor Petrie-Smith drove them to Inscription Rock but only let them go after having explained to them at length the natural dangers of the mountains, in particular the canyons which became deadly traps when the violent rains of autumn swept down in the form of furious torrents.

Equipped with a map of Superstition Mountains and a transcript of Waltz's ramblings, the Master and the two Servants set off northeast.

* * *

They discovered the CFRT miners' camp. The place had been devastated. The fences had been torn; the prefabricated barracks seemed to have been trampled by a herd of elephants.

The floor was covered with shell casings. Here and there, a gun, a shoe... but not a body!

Hakuno blinked, surprised. The previous day's shooting had lasted a good half hour. She was expecting to find many bodies. Only, apart from a few small puddles of blood (like a nose bleeding rather than a hemorrhage), there was nothing to indicate that someone was hurt.

The attacker appeared to be meant to capture, not kill. The winner of the Moon Cell Grail War pensively stroked bullets holes on a large rock protruding from the canyon wall. The Master turned to a submachine gun abandoned on the ground. Obviously, the man who had held this firearm had opened fire on the attacker who was standing where she was...

Hakuno knelt in the dust, picking up several bullets flattened by their encounter with the rock. There was no flesh or blood on the projectiles. They had passed through the... thing that stood there without inflicting any injury!

Rising up, the Master looked at the twisted wreck that had been a watchtower. What could have destroyed steel pillars so easily?

Hakuno recalled the brief hysterical description found in Spilett's notebook: "... masses teeming with tentacles... eyes... dreadful beings... inconceivable to mortal minds."

The teenager summarized her findings to her friends.

Jeanne d'Arc - who had taken a determined air at the sight of the ravage- made appear her armor, ready to face the aliens' creatures if they returned. Alongside her Master, Caster shared the concern of the saint of Orleans and had regained her appearance as a magical foxgirl.

Ruler followed the scrambled marks to the ground:

"There are traces of shoes... but also things I have never seen... even a snake did not leave such marks behind! But whatever they were, they came from that tunnel."

Indeed, in the rock wall against which the CFRT camp was leaning, there was a recent gallery. All around were damaged mining equipment, destroyed robots, and overturned crates.

Ruler led the way, holding her rolled banner up with two hands. Caster at her side, Hakuno sank plunged into the bowels of the mountain. The walls were regularly supported and rails were leading northeast.

* * *

The gallery was sloping. Fortunately, electric lamps hung on the walls diffused sufficient clarity.  
The visit of the gold mine would certainly have fascinated the archaeologists or a conquistador like Coronado, but there was nothing interesting for a _Spiritron Hacker_ and two Heroics Spirits. After a good hour of walking, after numerous turns and detours in the network of galleries, the three girls broke into a natural cave with its stalactites, stalagmites, and puddles of water at the foot of the limestone concretions.

It was cold and the fog condensed to their lips. Continuing to follow the railway, the Master felt a vibration crossing it. Extinguishing her flashlight, she took shelter behind a natural column, in the company of her two friends.

A motor-driven draisine loaded with plows filled with spoil came to pass. Two miners drove it. At first, reassured by their presence, Hakuno bit her lips when she saw them approaching. Dressed in blue suits bearing the initials of the CFRT and mining hats with a headlamp, the two men were completely immobile on the draisine... less natural than the NPC of the Seraph!

Crossing the eyes of the two men, Hakuno discovered that their eyes were completely empty, of an inhuman yellow color!

As the miners moved away, Caster slipped by Kishinami to whisper in her ear:

"At least we know why the miners were captured. The entity imprisoned in these caves needs human workers."  
Hakuno Kishinami nodded and turned on her flashlight before getting up:

"You think you can free them?"

Tamamo no Mae opened big eyes surprised. Of selfish nature, it would not have come to her mind to fly to the rescue of complete strangers. The kindness of her Master still surprised her, a quality that was far from displeasing her. She suddenly tied her arms around Hakuno's neck, pressing her cheek against that of the teenager:

"Kurukuru, there is nothing impossible for me when my witchcraft is boosted by your love, Goshujin-sama!"

Jeanne sighed exasperated and took the lead of their small group, sinking into the passage through which the strange mutants had arrived:

"Caster, Hakuno, hurry up or I'll leave you here!"

* * *

After the old mine of the nineteenth century and the natural caves, they discovered the modern tunnel created by the miners of the CFRT. It looked like a flat concrete tube, crossed by a railway. From far away there were small reserves of tools, electrical boxes, or abandoned worker robots.  
But no presence... I mean no human presence.

Hakuno first had the sensation of being spied on, an unpleasant impression which gave rise to a succession of chills.

She turned around and discovered a translucent thing almost hidden in the shadow of a large immobilized machine. The master pointed her flashlight in its direction and the beam of light revealed its shape...

Imagine a sort of translucent, ethereal, almost immaterial jellyfish floating in the air. Its tentacles hung to the ground without touching it, contorting like algae in a sea current. Above, a soft half-globe is constantly deformed... separated from the crown of tentacles by a real belt of small disgusting black eyes!

Without warning, the creature surrounded itself with a red halo run with crackling energy.

Hakuno dropped her flashlight and fell to her knees, her hands pressed on her temples, tortured by a sudden headache... as if tendrils of thought were plunging into her brain.

Ruler reacts even before Tamamo. Swirling her banner illuminated with a white glow, Jeanne d'Arc struck the monster that was catapulted against the other wall of the tunnel. The alien creature collapsed with a soft noise, shook its tentacles for a few more moments, and then decomposed into a filthy liquid.

* * *

The tunnel, unfinished, was opening up on a "cave" made of living tissue, wet, inlaid with crystals and strange cables -or was it rhizomes?- which retracted in contact with the light of the flashlight of Hakuno. Little reassured the teenager plunged into this organism from another world.

The corridor finished on an equally organic round piece, a mixture of flesh and crystal. On the ground a body completely mummified, his clothes are those of a worker of the nineteenth century, trousers held by straps on a checked shirt.

The man still wears a kind of helmet connected by two cables similar to viscera to a block of octagonal crystal that protrudes in the middle of the room.

While Jeanne remained on guard, Tamamo knelt to cast a simple spell on the helmet:

"Master, this is a communication device..."

A conflicting expression passed over the face of the Kitsune.

"I think it can only be used by a living being, a Servant could not connect. But it would be very dangerous..."  
With a finger, Tamamo no Mae pointed to the corpse.

"An individual with a fragile mind would probably give up life or reason."

Hakuno twisted her hands for a moment. It was an unexpected opportunity to learn what was happening here. She then displayed a determined air and took a step forward. At her side, her Servant sighed... Her beloved Master was definitely too brave for her own good.

The _Spiritron Hacker_ raised her hand, pointing it towards the disgusting organic helmet:

"_Code Cast: Hack!_"

It was a risky gamble... it wasn't about human technology or even technology to speak of. However, it was a communication instrument visibly designed to interface with a human brain. For a wizard, it had to be possible to connect without putting the helmet on the head... and risk ending with a fried brain as the last person to have tried the experiment.

A calculation which proved profitable... but which Hakuno immediately regretted.

Violent pain spread throughout her nervous system as her magic circuits lit up. A foreign presence imposed strange images upon her... thoughts that were not hers. The Master fainted.

* * *

Hakuno dreamed... or seemed to dream, except she never had such a strange dream.

She saw a world from very high, a primitive planet where the ground had just solidified. After thousands of years of rain, the first ocean had just been born. There was then no life.

There in the gray beginning of the Earth, was Ubbo-Sathla. Its formless mass rested among the mud and vapors. Without a head, without arms, without organs, or any limb, it contracted into a mass of dung that gave life uninterrupted to legions of larvae beings.

Around the Old One, placed in the mud of the beginnings, or erected in its bosom, one could see stone tablets extracted from the stars on which were engraved the inconceivable wisdom of the gods from before the creation of the world.

Hakuno saw the amorphous larvae engendered by Ubbo-Sathla spreading among the grey mud of the world. For millions of years, they remained infinitely primitive beings, but slowly they evolved.

Caster's Master relives the evolution of the world, not as scientists had imagined it from vague clues, but as it really was. Hakuno lives the age of dinosaurs... and the appearance of the first intelligent beings, the terrible Snake-Men!

In the midst of titanic cities of black gneiss, the Master saw the filthy ripples of snake crowds walking in the pre-human streets and in the tortuous underground beneath the buildings.

Hakuno saw the first priests-kings of the serpents observing the stars at the top of gigantic towers reminiscent of the legendary Babel; she saw the litanies of the priests before abominable idols.

In the sky flew pterodactyls, while the primordial jungles were crushed by huge dinosaurs.

Time passed, the civilization of the snake-men extinguished. Floods and glaciations followed one after another, and the continents that were separated kept further and further away.

Humanity appeared.

The men creating the first tools, then the fire... before creating the first civilizations, constantly fighting against the monsters that still occupied the world.

It was at first the appearance of Valusia which reached its peak in the time of Kull, the barbarian king who came from the primitive Atlantis. The mighty warrior definitely defeated the snake-men.

Then Mu succeeded Valusia, and then Atlantis supplanted Mu in turn.

Until the arrival of the _White Titan_ Sephar who destroyed this continent, defeated the gods and annihilated most living beings.

This was the end of the Age of the Gods and the beginning of the present epoch.  
After the flood of Atlantis and before the beginning of Sumer, there was a long period called the Hyborian era.

This age of the world was best known by its greatest hero, Conan of Cimmeria, the barbarian who had become a thief, then a slave, gladiator, soldier, general, king, and finally conqueror(4). He destroyed many monsters that had survived the previous eras, killed the last snake-men who survived in Stygia. After his reign man really became the dominant species of the Earth.

* * *

Hakuno came out of her fainting without serious damage. Although exhausted and suffering from migraines, her brain and her reason had survived the ordeal. In fact, she felt even stronger than before her strange journey into the memory of the world.

Accepting a few sips of water from the canteen Caster handed her, she coughed weakly:

"I know what is buried under the ruins of Cibola..."

As she was trying to get up, Tamamo forced her to resume the previous pose... with her head resting on her Servant's knees.

"You can speak without changing position, rest Goshujin-sama. "

Hakuno sighed and let herself be:

"Below us, very deeply beneath this thing built by aliens from another world, is the prison of Ubbo-Sathla. It was this Old One who brought life to Earth over a billion years ago. He is above all the guardian of the knowledge of the oldest gods, engraved on tablets of a material similar to stone but extracted from the very substance of the stars. Kimata's associates... the people of Cibola... and the monsters who were freed by the miners. All came to seize the tablets of the gods who reign before the creation of the world."

Tamamo seemed to meditate for a few moments, then grabbed her tail... to release a great book. The book was made of a cover of black stone, and its "leaves" were of a strange metal covered with runes of different colors. As she looked at it, she saw the interrogative look of her Master:

"You wonder what this book is, Goshujin-sama? It is the Book of Eibon, the writing of the sorcerer Zon Mezzamalech of Mu Thulan. He lived a long time ago when Greenland was three islands free of ice known at the time as 'Mu '.

She interrupted with a little cry of joy:

"There you go!"

Clearing her throat, Tamamo no Mae quoted a passage from the book she held in hands:  
"... _because Ubbo-Sathla is the source and the end. Before the arrival of Zhothaqquah or Yok-Sothoth or Kthulhut_(5) _from the stars, Ubbo-Sathla remained in the foaming swamps of the new Earth; a mass without head or limbs, engendering grey and shapeless tadpoles of the origin and the hideous prototypes of earthly life... And all life on Earth, it is said, will have to return through the great orb of time to Ubbo-Sathla_."

Hakuno seemed taken aback:

"That's exactly what I saw!"

Tamamo smiles:

"It is not surprising. Zon Mezzamalech had a 'cloud stone' a kind of orb of vision. With it the sorcerer can see other places and other times. He certainly wrote this passage after consulting this stone."

Hakuno glanced at the helmet that allowed her to have these visions:

"Certainly a less dangerous method than the one I used."

Caster shook her head:

"I don't think so. The Book of Eibon was finished by a disciple of Zon Mezzamalech. One day, the great sorcerer of Mu disappeared as his mind traveled through the 'cloudy stone' to look at the distant past and the orb disappeared with him. According to the anonymous continuer of the Book of Eibon, his master would have sought to seize the tablets of the first gods. And as you saw... these tablets have a guardian."  
Hakuno shivered at the memory of the filthy amorphous mass of Ubbo-Sathla. You may have really lost your mind to want to challenge such a monster... but the mortals who want to seize the knowledge reserved to the gods aren't the greatest of madmen?

* * *

(1) Jeanne was interrogated twice by scholars of the Church, one after her first meeting with the future King Charles VII in Chinon, and the other during her trial. She amazed the scholars of the Church by her knowledge (and her quick wit). Finally, she was sentenced during her trial for having arrived at a summons dressed in man's clothing (it was a sin to dress in the clothes of the other sex at this period)... to wonder how this outfit could have ended up in her prison. Someone had to have brought them to her... God? Satan? Or more simply her English jailers who wanted her condemned.

(2) Henry VI, Jeanne d'Arc contemporary King of England, was not of age to rule. His uncle John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, exercised true power as regent.

(3) The term "Dutchman" is the result of confusion. It seems that the Americans of the nineteenth century did not distinguish between Holland and Germany. Jacob Waltz was born in 1810 in Würtenberg (Germany).

(4) The cycle of Conan the Barbarian is part of the Mythos Cthulhu. The Hyborean world is the past of the Earth in the Mythos universe.

(5) Although the spelling adopted in the Book of Eibon is different from that found in the Necronomicon, it is the Old Ones Yog-Sothoth (Yok-Sothoth) and Cthulhu (Kthulhut). As for "Zhothaqquah", it is perhaps Ithaqa the "demon of the wind".


	15. Chapter 15 Gideon Spilett

**Boyzilla: The Moon Cell is a more powerful entity than Old Ones... and a more ancient one! And the Moon Cell is also more knowledgeable. It probably read the tablet that Ubbo-Sathla watched... and numerous over "secret" unspeakable source of forbidden knowledge.**

* * *

**Gideon Spilett**

* * *

In the depths of the Lost Dutchman's mine, a room mingling huge crystals with disgusting living tissue bathed in a pale light.

Helped by her Servant, Hakuno Kishinami stood up.

The complexion was very pale, still wobbling on her legs; the young Japanese woman was recovering from a trial. Mechanically, her hand went to her forehead. The teen girl had a violent headache since she woke up... which was not surprising. The previous user of the communication headset was dead because of the sudden influx of knowledge. Only her _Spiritron Hacker_ skills had protected her. Now her mind was filled with images and memories that traced over a billion years of Earth's history.  
Hakuno shivered... not to mention his encounter with Ubbo-Sathla... A confrontation, even in a dream, with an Old One could lead to madness. However, the Victor of the Moon Cell Grail War did not feel changed. No, it wasn't quite right... Until then, Hakuno Kishinami had only had the knowledge implemented at all the Seraph NPCs and the few months of memories acquired since his awakening.  
Hakuno had amnesia.

The reason why she had always learned at a speed that terrified these opponents was precisely this empty memory. Having no memory that cluttered her mind, Hakuno absorbed all information with remarkable speed.

Maybe using her _Magecraft_ to interface with the communication headset didn't explain everything. Having a little cluttered mind also had to have helped her. After all, the communication headset did not need to "overwrite" the "Hakuno Kishinami file" to make room for the information it was responsible for delivering.

Still, the feeling was strange...

The feeling of being empty had been replaced by the feeling of being filled.

Even without a point of comparison, Hakuno knew that it was not what her friends felt when they talked about their memories. There existed as a boundary between the memories of Hakuno Kishinami and those brought to her by the helmet... they remained foreign, sometimes even incomprehensible.  
It was disturbing. She was well placed to know that there was no difference between "personality" and "memory".

The Victor of the Moon repulsed these dark thoughts. Basically, Hakuno was this kind of positive personality that always focused on the obstacle directly facing her. What could happen later, she would take care of later.

Displaying a sudden determination, the Master turned to her Servant.

* * *

With her face tense in an expression of disgust, Tamamo no Mae looked down the tunnel. Mixing living tissue and crystals, the passage plunged into the depths of the hybrid of construction and creature. Slowly, the matter contracted as if at the rhythm of a heartbeat, while a warm and humid wind like the breath of a monster lifted from the depths.

At the idea of descending this esophagus, even the bravest could not hold back an instinctive movement of fear...

The kitsune's tail beat the measure like a metronome. Her Master, who knew her well, knew that she was nervous or worried... Caster turned and her expression changed at all. Now that she was looking at her beloved "husband", her eyes sparkled with warmth and affection. Her fox ears trembled, while she smiled:

"Goshujin-sama, once again you have achieved a feat that no one else had achieved before you. To contemplate the tablets of the gods who rule prior to the birth of this world, without going mad or find yourself hunted by monsters of the past, this is never seen. However, your humble wife reminds you that prudence is the best part of courage. I doubt we can learn anything more important by sinking into the bowels of this... " Something" from another world. I would suggest that we go back to Tomoko and Professor Petrie-Smith."

On the lookout, taking charge of keeping watch, Jeanne d'Arc approved:

"Hakuno, don't forget the monsters that ravaged the miners' camp. There was only one sentry at the entrance to this room. Nevertheless, others must be further inside. For now, our presence has not triggered an alarm, but risking further would be taking unnecessary risks."

Hakuno Kishinami, less gifted at explaining in words, was content to nod them through. Followed by her friends, she turned around, crossing the kind of airlock similar to a sphincter that communicated with the concrete tunnel.

* * *

The tunnel dug by machines behind them, the Master and the two Servants found the natural caves. However, during their brief absence, things had changed. A strange light without a visible source now bathed the place. The cold and damp had been replaced by a warm breeze that had nothing natural.

An evil wind swirled around their faces, pushing in front of them vegetal shreds... large plates of fibrous mosses that crawled on the walls and then detached to fall on them.

Disgusted, Hakuno struggled, repelling the strange plants that crawled on her face. But others continued to come, driven by the demonic wind. Stuck to her skin, the animated plants of a strange life converged towards her nose and mouth, as if to try to suffocate her.

Tamamo and Jeanne were also attacked. They defended themselves as they could, but even the strength of a Servant seemed powerless to repel those light creatures that were floating in the wind. More and more of these strange plants detached themselves from the walls of the cave and clung to them.

As Hakuno struggled, she saw a shifting form moving towards her friends. In the darkness, a veritable whirlwind of mosses was formed over the railway, blocking completely the passage through which the Master and the Servants had come.

Reacting instinctively, Kishinami stuck her hands crossed over her mouth and nose, running towards a rocky steep path that was not yet covered by the strange mosses.

The Servants ran behind her, striving to destroy the monstrosity. Alas, their blows were only repelling the mosses plates. The evil wind that pushed the strange vegetal forward was responsible for bringing them back to the Heroic Spirits. Something had to be done to stop this filthy thing. The solution appeared to Hakuno in a flash:

[Caster: Skill]

Tamamo no Mae's immobilized despite the vegetable fibers teeming on her face. An ofuda appeared between her fingers:

"_Curse: Frigid Heaven_!"

The paper marked with an ideogram raised a wall of ice that blocked the corridor where the bulk of the creature was. At once the demonic wind stopped blowing and the loathsome mosses sheets fell to the ground, twisting like amoebas. Hakuno, Tamamo, and Jeanne were able to get rid of the plants that were still crawling on their skins and clothing.

The maiden of Orleans approved Hakuno's reaction with a nod:

"Beautiful wit, master Kishinami, without you we would have been suffocated by this monster."

Caster holds Hakuno in her arms, visibly very proud:

"Mikon! Goshujin-sama is so extraordinary!"

Hakuno tilted her head with an expression of confusion:

"I don't see why you're congratulating me! The monster is still there and blocking the only way out."

The two Servants looked at each other with an embarrassing expression. All the joy of being rid of the creature, they hadn't even thought of it.

* * *

The natural caves formed an immense network. The miners of the nineteenth century had built part of it. Thus, in the beam of Hakuno's flashlight appeared a rusted iron grille closing a cave transformed into a reserve. Old barrels and rotten crates were breaking down in the humid atmosphere of the underground. Farther away from the steps hastily cut into a wall, it was possible to reach a natural gallery opening up high, on the side of a large cave.

This passage brought them to another smaller cave. There were two passages and, after a hesitation, Hakuno chose to follow a rocky ledge, thinking that it was first of all necessary to approach the surface.  
Turning into the natural corridors that formed a veritable labyrinth, Hakuno guided herself to a rumor like thunder. This sound came from somewhere in the North. From turns to turns, the three young women ended up arriving at a small but very high cave. An underground river was falling from the heights, far above their heads before sinking into an underground fault. We could not see the ground; the water covered everything, coming to die in wavelets at their feet. It was the sound of the waterfall that had attracted them. In the cave, the roar was so powerful that it suffocated all the others sound.

It was a dead-end...

While Hakuno was about to turn around, a large black tentacle sprang up from the underground pond. Surprise, the teenage girl could have made a defense move. Fortunately, Tamamo had jumped between the threat and her "husband". Her mirror blocked the attack.

In an instant, the sinuous limb retreated. And - for a moment- the pond seemed to return to immobility... then the water rose up and bubbled, while a dozen tentacles struck furiously. Taking refuge behind Caster, Hakuno retreated towards the entrance while coordinating the defense of her Servant.  
Ruler had to do as many tentacles as they did. In order to escape them, she chained dodges with a leap some tentacles and swirling her standard wrapped in white light to block the others.

The monster was terrifying powerful...

Its attacks were so numerous and so fast that it kept the two Servants on the defensive and pushed them back under the weight of the blows.

[Skill!]

An ofuda appeared between Caster's fingers:

"_Curse: Frigid Heaven!"_

The effect of paper marked with an ideogram exceeded the expectations of Hakuno. The cold wave seized the underground lake and stormed the waterfall, freezing the entire cave in a case of frost. Even the monster's tentacles, covered with a thick layer of ice, were congealed!

However, disturbing cracks were heard and suddenly the gangue of ice surrounding a tentacle disintegrated into glistening fragments. Released, the sinuous limb snapped like a whip! Struck in the chest, Tamamo ripped off the ground before hitting the wall at the other end of the cave and landing on the frozen mirror of the lake. The violent impact had left the imprint of the Servant's body in the stone wall!

As Hakuno uttered a cry of fear, running towards Caster, Jeanne leaped up and grabbed her to pull her back, stopping a second tentacle that had just broken free.

At this point the ice plug that had held the underground river broke under the pressure of the flood; a veritable wall of water was formed, sweeping Jeanne and Hakuno into the access tunnel.

* * *

Hakuno Kishinami regained consciousness... and immediately regretted it.

She was just in pain everywhere.

Coughing and spitting out the water that filled her lungs, she stood up. Her eyes perceived only darkness. Her teeth chattering, in her clothes soaked in ice water, she rubbed her arms. Nevertheless, the shiver that shook her owed nothing to the cold.

She had been separated from the two Servants by the wave that had pushed her here. She had lost her flashlight and was in the dark... all alone... and there were monsters in those caves. Mechanically, the young Master touched the _Command Spell_ on the back of his hand... She had only two marks left.  
The Victor of the Moon shook his head. No, she would wait to find herself in desperate circumstances to call Caster near her. She had to keep a cool head, not panic...

Kishinami used to say that, but she never found herself in such a terrifying situation. Being in the real world, Hakuno could not even use her arsenal of _Formal Wear_. She was just a sixteen-year-old teenager without a weapon... in the darkness... lost in a maze... populated by monsters.  
She swallowed.

* * *

Stumbling on uneven ground, Hakuno followed a bumpy wall. Then her hand met the void. The Japanese woman knelt, feeling the air around her... without encountering obstacles. A cave? The teen girl explored the place for a time that seemed infinite and then found another passage.

Completely lost, Kishinami chooses to continue in this direction.

If the darkness was too deep for her to see anything, the young Japanese listened attentively but without hearing anything but drops of water. Hakuno had thought of calling... but there was no evidence that her cries attracted a Servant rather than a monster. Also, she remained silent. Only one thing was working in her favor. The bond between her and Caster was very strong. Of course, the distance was too great for her to call the Servant mentally, but she felt her presence and even the direction where Tamamo was to be.

The tunnel continued for a few meters... until the ground slipped under her feet. She screamed with terror. Fortunately, the fall was short. The teenager rolled down a slope of debris and eventually hit a large rock before collapsing.

This time, she had thought she would die and the shock brought tears to her eyes. She had escaped death so many times... and a fall into the dark could have killed her! She had defeated Buddha and Sir Gawain... and a fall into the dark could have killed her!

Hakuno curled up against the wall, trying to contain the sobs that rose in her chest. The teen girl felt that if she let go now, it would be over... she would die there. Moving forward on her knees and holding out a hand in front of her, Caster's Master searched the debris. She was just trying to get a sense of her environment.

But her fingers met something that wasn't stone... She removed her hand with as much alertness as if she had recognized a rattlesnake. Yet... it was fabric! Swallowing, Hakuno began again to probe the space in front of her. Her cautious fingers touched an old dusty fabric, straps...

The Victor of the Moon laughed when realized that she had just found a miner's backpack. How had it failed here? Shrugging her shoulders, she sat on a rock and placed the bag on her knees. Undoing the straps was complicated in the dark, but even more to identify the objects that bag contained... small glass bottles. Most were too light to still contain something. As Hakuno shook the only one who still seemed full, she heard a liquid sound. And this? Metal... glass and more metal... the glass part was moving... oh? Full of excitement, Kishinami recognized the characteristic shape of a petroleum lamp. In the side pockets of the knapsack, she found a small cardboard box with small wooden rods inside... the smell of sulfur made her understand that it was a match. Carefully, she struck a first match and... a yellow-red light appeared.

Blinking after the sudden return of her sight, Hakuno hurried to light the wick of the oil lamp.

Miraculously, the dry atmosphere of the gallery allowed the preservation of the equipment. After two hundred years, the flame burst forth, brightly lighting the tunnel where it was. Taking advantage that she could see again, the young Japanese made the tour of the treasures contained in the old bag.  
In fact, it was limited to a few things...

A bag of oiled paper contained large grey-white crystals which, judging by their taste must have been coarse salt. The empty bottles were closed by shriveled-up plugs, only a little dust remained after the evaporation of the contents. The remaining small bottle was hermetically sealed by a glass cap reinforced by a copper wire.

Realizing that it was a dangerous product, Hakuno opened with caution... the smell that came out made her cough and tear: sulfuric acid!

Recovering what could be, the young Master inspected the place with the oil lamp. The tunnel ended with scree. The escalation seemed difficult. However, she could take the other direction...  
Having light again, Hakuno suddenly felt optimistic.

The natural labyrinth of caves stretched over leagues and leagues. On several occasions, Hakuno Kishinami had heard rumors of fighting -probably between one of the Servants and a monster- without being able to approach, because the clashes drew to them groups of monstrosities eager for blood. Luckily, each time, the teenager managed to hide in time to avoid bad encounters. Unfortunately, it had helped her get away from Caster.

The caves looked like a museum of horrors. The young Master had not discovered two identical creatures, as if they were the result of a collection carried out by a kind of mad collector or the fruit of the experiences of a mad scientist eager for originality.

* * *

After several hours, while her watch clearly indicated that the night had long reigned on the surface, Hakuno felt that she was approaching a source of heat. Seeing a light reflected on one of the travertine walls, she immobilized to listen.

A sort of snoring sounds before interrupting... at the same time as the light. Showing patience, she waited and saw the phenomenon repeated. So the light and the noise were well connected. And given the warmth, it generated a lot of heat. Inevitably, it evoked fire.  
Slowly advancing, Hakuno reached a column of calcareous secretion and leaned against it. Her throat was dry and her instincts screamed that a monster was close.

What to do? Step back? There was no way out behind her.

Drawing on her courage, the teenager advanced through a forest of stalactites and stalagmites. Suddenly, the oil lamp lit "something"... it looked like a kind of long cylinder, the size of a big tree trunk, walking on hundreds of short and swift legs. The monster crossed the last meters and stopped. The girl staggered backward at the sight of its head covered with triangular scales as large as shields.

Suddenly a presence began to weigh on the spirit of Hakuno... the monster had psionic abilities and resorted to it. Shaken by a violent headache that hammered her temples, Kishinami plunged her hand into her pocket to draw the amulet that Tomoko had given her. Brandishing it, she recited the formula that accompanied the _Mystic Code._

The psychic strength of the monster was constantly growing, yet the pain was gone. Hakuno looked down at the _Mystic Code_ in her hand. The object vibrated and radiated, absorbing the energy directed at it.

The creature pitched up and shook its head, pushing a kind of squeal that could well be a cry of pain. The monster arched, standing on its hind legs while the front ones waved in a disgusting manner. Suddenly a violent shock wave ran through Hakuno's arm. Shaken, she felt the amulet break.  
The monster's psychic strength was revealed to be greater than the ability to protect the Mystic Code. However, the filthy creature continued to stumble with pain. Evidently, the ordeal had been difficult.  
As the monster turned towards her and the chitin scales covering its head opened... Hakuno felt like vomiting... The head seemed to bloom like a kind of monstrous flower; the scales now formed some kind of "petals" filled with teeth that surrounded a filthy sphincter flooded with slime.

As always when she was in danger, the flow of time seemed to slow down. Hakuno Kishinami took the opportunity to analyze her opponent, looking for a weak point. Finally noticing the filthy, viscous body, similar to that of the slug, Hakuno remembers the bag of coarse salt. Feverishly opening the waterproof paper bag, the teen girl spread its contents on the mucus-covered skin.  
Now, salt absorbed moisture.

The monster twisted as a simple slug would. Of course, given the size difference, it would have taken whole barrels of salt to kill the monster. Its body contained far too much moisture for it to be possible to dry it with the contents of a simple bag of coarse salt.

Nevertheless, its strange cry of pain shook the vaults of the cave. It hit the stone columns that broke. The Master took refuge further into the cave, trying to circumvent it. But - by chance or on purpose? - The horrible creature was now standing between her and the exit.

Finally, its convulsions calmed down. The abomination rose up, culminating just under the stone vault, and pointed its mouth at her and... spit. By reflex, Hakuno dodged... and saliva hit a pillar of limestone that was immediately wrapped into flames!

Feverishly, the Victor of the Moon searched the miner's bag to get the little bottle of sulphuric acid. In a precise gesture, she threw the vial into the mouth when it opened to spit.

She only had time to throw herself behind a big rock...

The explosion that followed was quite satisfactory! Packages of sticky and ignited stuff fell back on the walls and the ground releasing an oily and suffocating smoke.

Straightening Hakuno sighed; the flower-slug (slug-flower?) would no longer threaten anyone. The head was gone and a good half of the corps was disemboweled. The rest of it spasmodically twisted while burning.

Let no one ever say that chemistry classes are useless.

Turning on the oil lamp, which had been extinguished, the Master was heading towards the exit as a thought went through his mind.

For the first time in her life, she had defeated an opponent without help... and it was an abominable monster. Tamamo would be proud of her!

* * *

After walking for a long time, the lamp began to show signs of weakness. The oil reserves were at their lowest and there was nothing to be done. Worried, Kishinami pressed the pace. Ending in a small cave half-filled with a pile of schist, the teenager sees a man lying flat on the ground. She began to run but stopped after a few steps... Needless to hurry, the man had been dead for a very long time. His parchment skin and his hair dried to the point of being brittle were those of a mummy. His clothes dated from the late nineteenth century. Accustomed to deducing the identity of individuals from thin clues, Hakuno already suspected who she was dealing with. Nevertheless, she knelt in spite of her repugnance to search the deadman clothes, noting the empty holster and the belt lined with bullets.

In his jacket, she saw a chain passed through the buttonhole and connected to a small pocket... a pocket watch. The antique tarnished silver chronograph opened in her hand, inside was engraved a few words:

Gideon Spilett, 1875.

All along she had followed his trail. His bag with salt, the acid bottle, and the oil lamp had saved her life.  
As Hakuno was standing again, she noticed that the position of the body was not natural. Spilett held out his hand, his index finger pointed like he died trying to show something... The teenager turned her head and frowned... feeling the night wind playing with her hair.

The finger pointed towards an opening where she saw some night stars.

Joining hands in a gesture of prayer, Hakuno bowed:

"Thank you."

Gideon Spilett had been an ordinary man, not a Master, not even a _Magus_, just a mining engineer armed with a colt and some knowledge of chemistry... Yet he had saved humanity and almost managed to reach the exit of this labyrinth. Entering with two Servants, Hakuno Kishinami had managed to survive only by following the passage that Spilett had cleared and thanks to the equipment he had left behind.  
Hakuno Kishinami had met many heroic spirits. She was certain that Gideon Spilett had joined the _Throne of Heroes._

* * *

The outside... at night...

The beating heart of Hakuno exuded joy; she broke her jail and tasted freedom.

The Master thought she was done with this trial, she was wrong.

Forms sprang up from the darkness, throwing themselves upon her, tending chitinous limbs and tentacles to grasp her.

The terror nailed Hakuno on the spot offering her as a helpless victim to the monsters' horde that had suddenly appeared.

Fortunately...  
A disc of light passed near her before describing a vast arc of circle among the opponents, striking them and throwing them to the ground. The "disk" then returned to the hand of the woman in armor who had jumped at his side... It was only at this moment that Hakuno recognized the banner of Ruler. The latter had just drawn her sword and struck the monsters who wanted to attack her, cutting the limbs and forcing the monsters to retreat, squeezing stumps from where viscous chyle flowed.  
Cheering up her blade, Jeanne d'Arc took her banner with two hands, making it twirl. The flag was surrounded by a white light that seemed to fall in flakes on the ground.

She raised_ Luminosité Éternelle _to the night sky and the light that surrounded the standard became a pure pillar of light that leaped to the stars. A moment later, this light fell to the ground in the form of a real rain of _Light Arrows_.

The result was a slaughter in the ranks of monsters. Some were disintegrated; others were cut in half or shredded by the beams that cut down all over the canyon and the nearby massifs.

When the darkness returned, Hakuno turned to Jeanne and look at her bug-eyed. What a power, she had just destroyed maybe a hundred enemies in an instant... and yet... Ruler had not uttered a word! So it wasn't her _Noble Phantasm_...

"Master Kishinami, are you all right?"

In the darkness, the Japanese could not see the anxious features of Jeanne. But nothing could hide the anxiety in her voice. Yet Hakuno did not care about herself at this moment:

"Caster?"  
"Sorry, I was separated from her at the same time as you. I haven't seen her since."

The Victor of the Moon sprang up, her exhaustion was forgotten. She tensed her hands on her chest, twisting her fingers. She felt Tamamo... but very faintly... Either she was far away... or her Servant had no more energy, perhaps she was dying!

The panic threatened to overwhelm Hakuno. Even in the dark... even pursued by the monsters, she did not feel so disarmed.

A multitude of images emerged from her memory.

Tamamo laughing...

Tamamo telling her to open her mouth, holding a spoon and a bowl of soup "cooked with love"...

Tamamo in anger...

Tamamo blushing and squeezing her foxtail against her chest...

Tamamo...  
Tamamo was everything to Hakuno. The teen girl was just a vaguely aware NPC when this Magical Foxgirl came out to save her. Since then, Tamamo had always been there to support her, to love her, to listen to her, or to scold her when she self-pitying. By becoming a Master, Hakuno had become a person... losing Caster meant to say she lose everything. Hakuno would never have the strength to continue living without Tamamo. Her constant presence was necessary to her. She had never known anything else.

Hakuno's fingers touched her _Command Spell_, which Jeanne d'Arc seemed to guess her torments.

"I'll help you... After all, it's the least I can do. You came at my request. Show your _Command Spell_."

Intrigued, Hakuno let her take her hand. A red light filtered through Jeanne d'Arc's fingers. As she released her, the Master discovered that his missing _Mark of Command_ had reappeared.

"This is a Ruler Class ability. I have two Marks of Command by Servant participating in this Grail War. Fourteen in total... thirteen since I gave you one. Come on, call Tamamo no Mae. "

Hakuno nodded silently and lifted her hand:

"By my _First Seal of Command_, Caster, I command you... Come to me!"

The _Mark of Command_ forming the end of her _Command Spell_ similar to a stylized fleur-de-lis radiated and disappeared... for the second time... leaving only a grey mark.

Simultaneously, a flash of red light released a humanoid form that collapsed to the ground. Hakuno rushed to discover Tamamo... unconscious! The kitsune was covered with wounds, her clothes torn. Her Master trembled with anger directed against the monster that had inflicted this on her precious Tamamo. Fortunately, the foxgirl was more resistant than her appearance could leave us to believe. Like all Servants, she recovered from all non-lethal injuries without any damage. Nothing could alter the _Saint Graph_ of a Servant.

With a retrospective thrill, Hakuno realized that they were lucky to have come back alive. The horrors that resided under the Superstition Mountains justified that the Apaches see these mountains as the entrance to hell.

* * *

**Author's note: Does anyone still think that the Mythos Creatures are easy opponents for Servants?**


	16. Chapter 16 The Body Snatchers

**Boyzilla: That's exactly what I want to explain. An ordinary human armed with a pistol would have a good chance against a solitary ghoul (he just has to shoot fast enough to kill the monster before reaching its grasp)... and a Servant could face hundreds of them! On the contrary, a stellar larva (I think that the giant aquatic monster invoked by Caster Gilles is precisely a Cthulhu's stellar larva) can only be destroyed by a Noble Phantasm as powerful as Excalibur. A Shub-Niggurath kid would ****be a formidable opponent for a Servant. In season 3 of Overlord, Ainz Oal Gown summons a group of Shub-Niggurath's offsprings... they walked an army in minutes. Besides Gilgamesh, which Servant could stop Ainz's baby goats?**

**Author's note: very Lovecraftian chapter, I had fun writing the first paragraph in Lovecraft's very verbose style weighed down by a plethora of qualifiers... yes, it is not very legible. But this is the style of the "Master of Providence".**

* * *

**The invasion of the Body Snatchers**

A little clearer before dawn...

It is often said that the horizon lights eastward before sunrise.

At the sight of the pale stars, Hakuno felt as if she had awakened from a nightmare. Had she really crossed the infernal caverns under the Superstition Mountains, or had she only dreamed of it?  
Hakuno Kishinami, the only Master who survived the Moon Cell Holy Grail War... veteran of hard fighting, winner of legendary enemies, would have liked all this to be a dream. But despite her most fervent prayers, Hakuno could not deny the truth. Her clothes torn and still wet, her muscles stiffened by the many efforts she had had to make to escape the sinister labyrinth, her cuts, her bruises, and her skinned knees were far too real.

Despite all the trials and tribulations in the Seraph, his heart began to beat like a drum to the simple memory of the horrors encountered in the "hell" of the Apaches legends.

As each step moving her away from the abominations residing in the bowels of the Earth, horror fell upon the young Master. In the pale lunar light, the ground seemed to swarm with a dreadful life. The stars above her seemed to be cruel eyes blinking with greed.

Stifling the urge to vomit, Kishinami leaned against the wall of the canyon.

She had come out of the mine and the caves and no matter what promises were made to her, nothing could force the teen girl to reenter this despicable and blasphemous place. Only... if a cursed den like these caves could have survived the passage of millions of years, ready to disgorge this godless life imprisoned in its abysses... how many other places like this gloomy well could exist waiting only for the misfortune of a human hand to surge upon the surface of the world and forever defile the soul of its inhabitants with knowledge impurities?

Surviving this labyrinth of cursed caves may not have been the real test... Hakuno Kishinami should now carry within her the sinister revelation that man shared the cosmos with abominations that hid beneath the smooth and graceful surface of the world she knew.

Nightmares would haunt her for years...

* * *

As the first rays of the sun lit up the tangle of canyons and rust-colored peaks that formed the Superstition Mountains, Hakuno Kishinami finally found the strength to break away from the dark meditations that plagued her.

Respecting her silence, Jeanne d'Arc walked beside her. The French saint wore Tamamo no Mae on her shoulders. The magical foxgirl was still unconscious and the light of day only made the many wounds received by Caster too obvious.

As for Ruler...

Jeanne was bleeding from the cheek and had her sleeve torn. Hakuno also noticed that her new friend was walking, avoiding leaning on her left leg, and her step accelerated when she did. The Maid endured the pain without showing it, but for someone as observant as Kishinami, it was obvious that Jeanne had been wounded.

* * *

Arriving at Massacre Ground, Hakuno and Jeanne discovered that a seismic shock had devastated the archaeological encampment. Some of the prefabricated houses were leaning on their sides, while cracks had appeared in the ground. As for the fence, it was torn open. One of the watchtowers lay on the ground.

Fortunately, the tremor had only caused a few slight wounded who watched them enter the camp whispering. A very understandable attitude, they really made a sensation with their wounds, the armor of Ruler, and especially the appearance of Tamamo... Fainting, the kitsune could no longer mask her foxtail and ears using the shapeshifting techniques created by Daji (1).

While the others remained at a distance, Professor Petrie-Smith and Tomoko rushed to meet them. The expression of the old man was worried:

"I am glad to see you again. All night long strange phenomena have followed one another. As you can see, the earth has even trembled. But you seem to have gone through more terrible things than we have."  
Tomoko Tohsaka glared at the archeologist:

"Your curiosity can wait, Professor. Caster seems to need urgent care. Jeanne, over here."

While the _Magus_ beckoned to Jeanne to follow her to the infirmary, Llewelyn Petrie-Smith had an engaging smile for Hakuno:

"In the meantime, Miss Kishinami, why don't you tell me what happened to you? You look like you've just gone through the full cycle of a washing machine, spin includes."

* * *

Sitting in a folding chair, Professor Petrie-Smith finished cleaning his pipe. Opening a pouch of tobacco, he began to fill it. The smoking ritual occupied his hands and seemed to calm him down.  
Hakuno yawned before rubbing her eyes. When she finished her story, she struggled to keep her eyelids open. Yet every time she seemed ready to give up to sleep, horrible images would parade under her lowered eyelids and she would jump with her heart beating.

"I see..."

Kishinami turned to the archaeologist. The words were simple, ordinary, those of a simple observation... nevertheless; the tone suggested much more... a strong concern.

The miners had reopened the natural caves that communicated with the Lost Dutchman's Mine. They had been attacked and captured by strange creatures that now made them work for God knows what... It didn't bode well.

Llewelyn Petrie Smith lit his pipe and took a few puffs. With a gesture of his hand, he showed the monitors of the computers, all off, and then got up to play the switch. The neon tubes in the ceiling refused to light up:

"It's been like this since the earthquake," he said, "It's not just the generator that's not working anymore. Cars refuse to start. Even my watch is dead and the batteries are still good for two years. Looks like a force has taken over the mountains and is preventing technology from working. Obviously, without radio or satellite, we have no communication with the outside world. Some of the students panicked and wanted to flee... Only a few miles away a wall of fog appeared yesterday. Those who tried to cross it come out a few hours later without a memory of what happened to them when they were inside. It is a kind of _Bounded Field_ that prevents people from leaving the region."

Hakuno tilted her head and the old archaeologist chocked:

"As in the Gideon Spilett's diary."

Professor Petrie-Smith coughed up the smoke before approving. He had also noted that the events that the engineer of the mines had noted were repeating themselves: the earthquake, the strange mist, the stopping of the machines...

"We must fear that the aftermath of events will also happen again and that the monsters will come out of the caves to capture the inhabitants of the mountains... as they have already done to the miners."  
Searching his office, Llewelyn Petrie Smith drew an old map of the Lost Dutchman Mine protected by a plastic film. The paper was yellowed and crisp, the ink was barely legible. He put a finger on a gallery that went to the northeast:

"The new gallery drilled by the French seems to follow the same direction than that Spilett had opened before the earthquake of 1892."

The old man displayed for a few moments a dreamy look and then drew a more recent map from another drawer of his desk. The plan showed the Superstitions Mountains area.

"The mine is here and there... to the northeast, the Corkscrew Canyon where (at least in the Apache legends) the entrance to the underworld is located. I don't think it's a coincidence... Remember what Geronimo said, Cibola was wiped off the face of the Earth by a landslide. The city was not built in its mountains, but somewhere around. I think the desert beyond the Corkscrew Canyon hides the seven Golden Cities.

Before the archaeologist could say more, the outer door opened to let in Jeanne Arc - again in ordinary clothes, her wounds healed- and Tomoko. The latter struck Petrie-Smith with a glance:

"You should be ashamed to press questions on this exhausted teen that has just undergone a traumatic experience."

The archaeologist did his best to look contrite, but he seemed about as repentant as a cat caught in the pantry, its whiskers covered with cream.

However, Hakuno paid no attention to this little drama. She had risen as if moved by a spring to turn a worried face towards the heiress of the Tohsaka:

"Caster?"  
Tomoko Tohsaka sighed before answering with a softened expression:

"I can't imagine what Caster went through to find herself in such a state. But this is a Heroic Spirit, she is much more robust than her appearance might suggest. She will recover. Right now she's still unconscious. I've looked at her and there's no reason to worry. Her current state is mainly due to exhaustion, Caster must have used her _Magecraft_ until nearly exhausting her reserves of _Od_. Since you have a perfectly functional connection to Caster, she should soon recover enough energy to wake up... probably by tomorrow."

As the Victor of the Moon showed a reassuring expression, visibly relieved by the news she had just received, Jeanne d'Arc gave her a big smile:

"You are an exceptional Master, Hakuno Kishinami. It is very rare for a _Wizard _to treat his Servant as a person in his own right. Most only see them as tools to obtain the Grail. The best that a Servant can hope for from his Master is that he behaves loyally towards him. Only, even in this case, it remains a pure working relationship. But you are not an ordinary _Wizard_. For you, your Servant is a precious friend you don't want to lose. Caster is very lucky and I have no doubt that she knows that."

Kishinami turned successively to Tomoko, Jeanne, and Petrie-Smith, blinking like a surprised owl. Why did they all look at her as if she had just done something exceptional? Again, Hakuno did not understand the reactions of the people around her. What did she do that was so strange? Tamamo gave her love and confidence every day and raised her spirits by making her laugh. What was more natural than loving back those who loved you?

* * *

Hakuno waking suddenly.

Her heart was pounding frantically and the teenage girl straightened up trembling, sweating. The room she occupied was plunged into darkness. Everything was peaceful... except the content of her dreams.  
The monsters she'd escaped didn't let her leave so easily. They had invaded the contents of her memory and would long inhabit her sleep, shortening her nights, making her fear to close his eyes, exhausting her.

The room was perfectly quiet. The young Japanese girl could not hear any other breathing. Ah, yes... Tamamo was still in the infirmary. As for Jeanne, not really needing to sleep, she had decided to spend the night outside to stand guard.

Mechanically, Hakuno picked up Gideon Spilett's pocket watch. She had put it together the day before... unfortunately; the chronograph had once again stopped. Hearing a scratch, the Master turned around and froze when sawing something from the corner of his eye... Transfixed with terror, the teenager stared at the window. Had she imagined the disfigured face that was staring at her on the other side of the window?

Trying to control her breathing, the teenager approached the window. From the other side of the glass, she only sees the dark night, some stars, and the obscure shapes of other prefabricated buildings. No monsters. However, Hakuno was not reassured. Too aware of being alone, without anyone to protect her from the monsters that haunted the Superstitions Mountains, she was suddenly horribly afraid.

It took a lot of courage for Kishinami to cross the room. Her senses were exacerbated by the adrenaline flowing through her veins. Her wide-open eyes could only discern the vague black and white silhouettes of the furniture. Her bare feet barely touched the metal floor. Her hand landed on the latch of the door and made it play.

The main room was even darker than the bedroom. The curtains were completely closed. By reflex, she made a switch play... but the electric light refused to turn on, victim of the same phenomenon that had stopped Spilett's watch.

Her throat was dry, she skirted a wall of her hand and hurt when she hit a piece of furniture. A heavy object fell to the ground, generating a noise that - in the darkness- seemed to burst like thunder.

Hakuno stopped waiting almost for something to lunge at her. Fortunately, the prefabricated house fell back into silence.

Clenching her teeth, Hakuno forced herself to move forward. There must have been a door that opened on the kitchen to the left... yes, there. She opened it and immediately felt the night wind caressing her face. The incredibly sharp mind of the winner of the Moon Cell Holy Grail War made her grasp all the implications in an instant. The kitchen window had remained open! If a creature was really outside, it could already be inside!

In the pale light of the stars, she saw the room and the curtains floating in the wind. A good part of the room was obscure, anything could be hidden there! Without taking the time to doubt, Hakuno ran and closed the window.

Leaning against the near wall, the Master swallows. Her eyes sweeping the small kitchen, seeking a movement, tense in search of a noise that would reveal a presence.

Without a warning, Hakuno found herself catapulted to the side, striking one of the storage units. A humanoid figure had just thrown itself on her! A second blow touched her face. Her head ringing like a gong, the teenager felt the taste of blood in her mouth. As she grabbed the table, her hands sat on a tray. By reflex, she threw it in the face of the creature.

The being raised its arms to protect itself while the dishes on the tray broke in a crash of glass and earthenware.

For the first time, Kishinami clearly saw her attacker. Dressed in ragged clothes, he had the general appearance of a man... and had probably been one a few days earlier. Nevertheless, its skin had taken on the appearance of old leather and its eyes shone with a yellow light that had nothing natural. Its movements were clumsy like those of a primitive robot or a remote-controlled toy.

Fear gave the teen girl surprising strength, she knocked the table over, throwing it into the paws of the freak which staggered. Taking advantage of the creature's embarrassment, Hakuno ran to take refuge in the main room.

The Master closed the door behind her but she had nothing to block it. She cried out for help. Facing the monster, her only hope was to wake up Petrie-Smith and Tomoko. The two adults dwelt in the house, and their chambers were above stairs.

She ran, crossing the main room, then the vestibule seeking to reach the stairs that led to the second floor. Passing by the front door, Kishinami heard the beating of blows against the thick wooden panel which was already starting to crack.

The most immediate danger, however, was the monster that was already in the prefabricated house. It was only a few steps behind the Master.

Fortunately, her appeal for help had the hoped-for effect. Tomoko had just appeared at the top of the stairs. Wearing a short translucent nightgown, the young _Magu_s would have been very seductive in any other circumstance... Seeing the teenager running towards her, pursued by a man who was no longer one, her _Magic Circuits_ lit up as she turned her arm towards the monster:

"Gandr!"  
A salvo of black projectiles surrounded by a red aura flew towards the Body Snatcher which was catapulted against the opposite wall, falling to the ground like a broken puppet... only half of the head remained. Yet not a drop of blood oozed from the horrible wound!

Terrified, Tomoko turned to Hakuno probably to ask her an explanation. But she did not have the time, screaming was going on outside, followed by gunfire! The whole camp was under attack. As for the front door, it vibrated more and more violently as the assailants relentlessly pushed it down.  
A shotgun in his hand, in a dressing gown, Llewelyn Petrie-Smith had just emerged, ejecting two smoking cartridges, he reloaded his weapon:

"Be careful, more of these creatures are out there."

Hakuno nodded decisively:

"Let's barricade the door before they break it down."

As this was the most logical thing to do given the circumstances, her two elders did not argue, helping her to push a heavy metal cabinet in front of the entrance.

"They can go through the windows, they don't have shutters!"

"Let us retreat to the top of the stairs," replied Petrie-Smith.

Making a barricade with a bed, they entrenched themselves there gunfire continued to resound outside.

* * *

Twice, the Body Snatchers returned to the assault, passing through the windows they gathered in the entrance but were at every turn repelled by the rifle of the professor of archaeology and the "gandr" of the heiress of the Tohsaka.

Silence fell after the failure of the third attempt.

Uncomfortable, Hakuno felt a subtle tension build up around her. The enemy had not given up and his next attempt would be with far greater means. Concerned for Tomoko, Petrie-Smith, and herself, she was even more concerned for Tamamo, who must still be in the infirmary, unconscious, and unable to defend herself.

Shots continued to sound at times, proof that the guards and archaeologists had not yet succumbed to the assault of the Body Snatchers.

However, there was no sign of Jeanne d'Arc... and it was very disturbing. Even though the Master only knew her for less than two weeks, she knew that the French saint was not the type to leave innocent defenseless.

Something must have happened to her... which meant there was a creature out there powerful enough to neutralize a Servant!

As Hakuno shuddered at the bleak prospect, Tomoko rose suddenly to climb the bed serving as a barricade. Her action was so foolish and surprising that her two friends almost did not react in time. Grabbing her by the legs, they pulled her back. Petrie-Smith surrounded her with his arms as she struggled to escape:

"Tomoko, pull yourself together! What's happening to you, little one?"

But the young Magus responds incoherently with a haggard look:

"I have to open the door. I have to open the door."

The archaeologist and the Victor of the Moon exchanged an appalled glance:

"She is controlled" murmured Hakuno.

The next minute, Tomoko was softening in the professor's arms. She was beating her eyelids, giving them a flabbergasted look:

"But let go of me! What's happening to you?"

The old man and the teenager sighed, the enemy had just released her. However... Hakuno staggered, she suddenly felt like her head was in a vice. A presence surrounded her, powerful, authoritarian, radiating a clear order:

"You have to open the door."

The mental impulse spread to Hakuno's brain, a force so powerful that no human mind could resist. However...

The Master's hands closed on the Tibetan medallion in the shape of a silver mask that Caster had offered to her. The mighty _Mystic Code_ had once belonged to Emperor Songten Gampo, and part of the legend of this great hero (2) remained attached to the mask. The great emperor's strength sustained her failing spirit. She clenched her teeth, the sweat running down her face.  
"Oh, no... Now it's Hakuno's turn."

Dropping Tomoko, Petrie-Smith took out a book with a red leather cover from a pocket of his dressing gown. He quickly consulted a few pages before placing a copper tablet covered with letters of the Enochian alphabet (3) on the ground. The archaeologist then began an incantation while drawing a five-pointed star with chalks of five different colors:

"I pay homage to you, O divinity of the worlds reunited, by the sun Ehnb, by the water Hkoma, by the air Exarp, by the fire Bitom, by the earth Nanta. Great King, six lords, angels of the cross of Calvary, angels controlling the cross of Calvary, Archangels, send us a Kerubich's angel who can protect us from all the evil spirits that assail us."

The pentacle began to radiate and the power that beset the spirit of Kishinami was repelled by a higher force.

They had postponed another assault, but Professor Petrie-Smith was panting, visibly exhausted by the effort he had just made. This was not surprising. Without the possibility of drawing _mana_ from the _ley lines_, the last _Magi_ had no choice but to feed ritual magic with their own _prana_. Summoning an angel was already a feat... but, after the disappearance of the surrounding _mana_, no one could call for the help of Archangels.

* * *

Installed in the window of Petrie-Smith's bedroom to monitor the movements of the enemy, Hakuno Kishinami saw the arrival of the Mighty One... the creature who had sought to impose its will on her.  
The ethereal and spectral creature, from a world very different from ours, floating above the ground. Translucent and almost immaterial, it was a kind of jellyfish composed of a matter that vibrated at a different frequency from the atoms composing our universe.

Around it advanced the Body Snatchers. To see them progress awkwardly, moving in a jerky manner, it was evident that they were under the control of the Mighty.

But neither its slaves nor the power of its spirit could defeat those who resisted it so skillfully.

Was the monster mad at them?

Did it only know anger?

In any case, it was determined to resort to the heavy guns.

Three of its tentacles joined. There was an electric arc and a plasma ball as hot as the sun formed, growing, growing...Within seconds, the igneous sphere passed from the size of a large watermelon to that of an automobile.

Then the Mighty One threw the enormous plasmasphere at Petrie-Smith's house...

* * *

Everything then happened so fast that an ordinary human would have only seen a powerful explosion, leaving him blinded and momentarily deaf.

* * *

But Hakuno saw much more than an ordinary human. Her brain worked so fast that she could see the heroes in action.

Splendid in her shining steel armor, and her skirt of blue fabric, her long golden hair mat floating behind her, Ruler leaps to interpose herself between the monster and its target. Holding her immaculate standard with two hands, Jeanne d'Arc struck the ground with the extremity of the staff. Immediately a pure light enveloped her.

White light...

Sphere of plasma...

The two energies collided...

The explosion set off prefabricated buildings, Body Snatchers lifted up by the blast of the explosion were thrown to tens of meters while the heat vitrified the ground.

* * *

After the violent detonation, the stupefied archaeologists straightened up. The heat was such that they panted while trying to breathe the air stinking up of smoke. Flames were everywhere and most of the buildings were now lying on the ground. One of the watchtowers had been cut in half. The steel beams that formed it has turned red and cried tears of molten metal.

The crater in the center of the explosion was shaped like a crescent moon...  
Leaning on her banner, Jeanne tried to catch her breath. She was on a circular islet surrounded on three sides by a lake of reddish, pasty rock.

In extremis, the saint had stopped the attack.

Straightening her head, she leaped over the lava abyss to attack the monster responsible for this attack.  
Some Body Snatchers tried to stop her. Putting her two hands on the ground, her long legs swirled blows to all sides. She leaped back and forth upon an adversary before grabbing her flag with two hands to have it describe dazzling arcs of light, eliminating the last opponents.

The jellyfish, pale and half material, rose above the ground. Its tentacles joined, giving birth to a new sphere of plasma...

Ruler drew her sword. The holy blade, the sword of Fierbois(4), radiated a white light through the fiery ball and made it explode like a harmless windbag before sinking deep into the creature of another world.

The monster changed of color then fell to the ground before decomposing into a green liquid that bubbled and evaporated without leaving behind anything but a burnt mark.

Jeanne turned to the house of Petrie-Smith, one of the only buildings that had not collapsed. She offered Hakuno a contrite smile:

"Sorry I'm only here now, but there were three more of these jellyfish... and they're pretty resilient."  
Kishinami rolled wide-eyes... Ruler had destroyed four Mighty Ones! She really deserved her place among the Moon Cell's Top Servants!

* * *

(1) The shapeshifting technique of Tamamo no Mae (A rank) is not of her creation. She uses a method previously made famous by Daji, a _Huili Jing_ (a type of evil spirit resembling a fox-woman) who used her supernatural beauty to obtain the favors of King Zhou of Shang. Daji caused corruption and the fall of the Shang dynasty by her repeated crimes and abuses. Although it has been suggested that Tamano no Mae and Daji are one and the same person, this is unlikely. Daji was executed by King Wu of Zhou after the fall of the Shang dynasty, centuries before Tamamo appeared in Japan. Moreover, Daiji was not originally a _Huili Jing_, but a _Magus_ who used her _Magecraft_ to possess the body of a fox-woman whom she had just killed. On the other hand, Tamamo is not a _Huili Jing_ and does not take very well when compared to these evil and despicable creatures. In fact, Tamamo is not even a fox-woman... Tamamo was born in Egypt and belongs to the same half-human, half-jackal divine race as the god Anubis. Although, as Tamamo says: "The hair-covered style is not my thing". Tamamo was mistaken for a kitsune when she arrived in Asia but she let it be because it flattered her, as she said: "the foxes being cuter than the jackals! " It is, however, certain that Tamamo was in China at the time of the Shang dynasty and it is doubtless during this period that she acquired the techniques of Daiji's _Magecraft_. After all, stealing a rival's techniques isn't the favorite sport of all _Magi_?

Three thousand or even four thousand years old, Tamamo belongs to a divine race. She is therefore incomparably superior to a usurper like Daiji who only stole the body of a _Huilin Jing_ "only" a thousand years old.

Since we are talking about the age of Caster, do not use with her one of these typically Asian honorary formulations which consist of giving "big sister" to an older woman and especially not "aunt" (as if she were old enough to be your mother). Because these titles give her the impression of being an "old maid" and Tamamo insists that she is always "a pure young wife". Remember that her alignment is "Neutral Evil" and she has an Ex rank in Witchcraft. You wouldn't want to spend the rest of your life croaking in a pond with your new pals, the toads.

(2) If you are looking for an original hero, here is a Tibetan emperor know to be a great conqueror. Songten Gampo even forced the Chinese Empire to pay him a tribute... a humiliation that modern Chinese have still not forgiven the Tibetans. Songten would make an excellent Rider since he created a heavy cavalry that was at his time the best in Asia.

(3)An occult language used by Dr. John Dee and later by the Golden Dawn in their magical rituals. The copper tablet is Nalvage's tablet.

(4) When Charles VII wanted to give Jeanne d'Arc a sword, she asked that one dig under a slab of the church of Fierbois. A very ancient sword was found there. It would have previously belonged to Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer, because he struck swords with the force of a blacksmith hammering steel on the anvil). Mayor of the Palace (Prime Minister) of the Merovingian kings, Charles Martel stopped the Arabs at the battle of Poitiers (in 732 of the commune era), preventing Islam from spreading north of the Pyrenees. Charlemagne (Charles le Magne, Charles the Great) was named Charles in honor of his illustrious predecessor. Charles VII also bore his name in homage to these two Charles.

* * *

**Author's note: The last two episodes were difficult for Hakuno... poor little girl.**


	17. Chapter 17 Mikon!

**Boyzilla:**** Let's just say I respect the conventions of Lovecraftian horror. It's a crossover, after all.**

**For the use of the **_**Gandr**_**, you are mistaken. The **_**Magecraft**_** is not impossible on the Earth of the Extraverse. An example is given in Fate Extra CCC Foxtail. JK, one of the Masters of the " bad guy team ", belongs to a family of **_**Magi**_**. Its power is to create fire by ringing a bell. In a flashback, we see his training and learn the limits of **_**Magecraft**_** in the real world during Gaia hibernation. First, the **_**Magi**_** can no longer draw **_**mana**_** from their environment. Secondly, the control of the **_**Magecraf**_**t is much more difficult and exhausting... besides trying to ignite a training target JK burns his house and kills his parents. I invite you to read the manga if you want a more complete explanation.**

**Strangely enough, I would have thought that the invocation of an angel by Petrie-Smith would have shocked you more... because that is normally impossible without resorting to the surrounding **_**mana. Formalcraft**_** has become rigorously impossible in Extraverse... but Petrie-Smith can. Why?**

**Yes Hakuno need a vacation, and Tamamo is completely in agreement with you... she wants a honeymoon in a beach resort, and time to cook good little dishes for her "husband".**

**With Tamamo & Hakuno's usual bad luck, Tamamo will choose a "wonderful South Pacific island" and it will be Ponape... and the first day of their vacation Cthulhu will wake up!**

* * *

**Mikon!**

* * *

The night was full of lights, not only the moon and the stars of the sky but also burning torches. A vast line of men searched the fields of Nasu, methodically advancing in search of a monster. Dogs barked, pulled their leash, guiding the furious mob.

A hand finished with delicate claws let down the golden sheaf of wheat which she had spread. The one hiding there was wearing a beautiful purple and white _furisode_ (woman's kimono) with a black and gold _obi_ (belt) knotted on the front. An outfit worthy of Mizukume, the emperor Toba's favorite... the one her pursuers only called the "Devil-Fox".

Because among the long pink hair tied by a blue ribbon and gold bell pendants, appeared two fox ears! This appearance which Mizukume hid by a spell had suddenly been revealed in the middle of an official ceremony by a famous _Onmyouji_ (exorcist) called Abe no Seimei.

Since then, the emperor's ex-favorite has been hunted down...

What did she do wrong?

Holding back her tears, Mizukume was feverishly questioning herself. She was just a poor girl from the Izumo province. Noticed for her beauty from her childhood, she had been sold by her parents to become one of the emperor's concubines.

Even there her splendid appearance and wisdom had separated her from other concubines of lower rank. The emperor had made her his favorite... And then one day, in her mirror, Mizukume had seen two fox ears. Using spells she didn't even know about, the emperor's favorite had managed to hide the fox's ears and tail... for a month.

Why did all this happen to her? What had she done wrong? Mizukume wiped her wet eyes... She had not used enchantments to charm the Emperor, she had not poisoned him. However, no one had listened to her defense against these false accusations.

As the Emperor's old favorite sobbed, the golden sheaves of wheat shuddered around her. Red and white, the legs elegantly shod by some sort of blacks socks a family of curious foxes surrounded her, swirling around her prostrate shape.

"Why are you crying?" one of them asked.

Mizukume startled, looking around to discover the motion-eared foxes that had stood on their hind legs to look at her. Was she dreaming? Had everything that had happened to her made her lose her mind?  
But one of the three baby foxes who was squeezed between their two parents raised to her a nose with whiskers quivering of curiosity:

"Why are you so upset?"

She did not dream... she really understood what the foxes said! Almost in spite of herself, Mizukume told her story, as she had found herself wearing ears and a foxtail. The people she considered her family and friends were now chasing her. They thought she was a monster. Because of her fox ears, they accused her of causing Emperor Toba's disease. How could she be freed from this curse?  
The father fox looked at her with sadness:

"Poor child, this is not a curse. You have never been human. You have just regained your true form. You are a fox like us. Humans reject you, but we love you. Humans don't like foxes. We kill a hen or we eat a bunch of grapes and they hunt us with their dogs. They always forget everything we do for them. If we did not sneak into their wheat fields to kill the mice, rats, and shrews, they would eat all the grain and the humans would starve. You just figured out, men only care about their immediate benefits. They always forget the past benefits and take the smallest difference or contradiction as an affront that must be washed in the blood. I feel so bad for you that you find out this way. You come a long way. What a rough journey you had."

Mizukume wiped her eyes and smiled feebly.

The foxes understood her feelings and sought to comfort her while the humans had betrayed her. Yet she had done nothing wrong, just seeking to help and prosper mortals.

"Aah, what a fool I was."

There in the middle of the wheat, Mizukume accepted what she was. She had never been human. She had just temporarily taken shape among mortals to discover their joys and sorrows. She admitted her kitsune nature.

Suddenly, the screams resounded around her. While Mizukume listened to the family of foxes, the men who hunted her had reached her position. She stood up, watching the hateful crowd around her, brandishing torches.

A samurai raised his katana, pointing to her:

"Kill the fox demon."

The kitsune approved of with slow head movement:

"All right, let's do this."

Its single tail became nine tails that formed around it a vast wheel, each tail being connected to the next by an arc of flame a pulsating of light rays reminiscent of the majesty of the sun. In the hand of the fox-woman, a mirror appeared.

The father of Emperor Toba, the retired emperor, had sent an army of eighty thousand men for killing the demon fox and protect his son... they all died that night, victims of the wrath of Tamamo no Mae.

* * *

The first light of the day illuminated a landscape of rusty iron where only a few surprisingly green shrubs offered some variety.

Massacre Ground had suffered from the fighting of the night. Several large smoking craters tore the ground apart; filled with a still glowing paste that slowly solidified.

The archaeologist camp was partly blown away by one of these explosions. Most of the prefabricated barracks lay on the ground. Some of the survivors searched the ruins for casualties or salvageable equipment, while others set up tents and set up a new camp a little away from the ruins.

In the tent serving as an infirmary, Hakuno awoke slowly. The daylight filtering through the entrance made her blink. She straightened up and tried to rub her eyelids... except something was stopping her. The young Japanese looked at her hand... her fingers were closed on Caster's palm.  
Hakuno Kishinami remembered.

She was so worried about Tamamo and she had fallen asleep on a chair next to her Servant's bed. Then she had this dream...

No, it was not a dream... It happened that Master and Servant relive a part of their partner's life as they slept. Binding so firmly the soul of two individuals did not go without some side effects.

Hakuno felt depressed. What happened in Nasu's fields made her want to cry. Were humans so stupid that just needed a person to be different by a detail that they want to kill him? And also Mizukume's response...no, Tamamo's response hurt her just as much. Her Servant responded to hate with more hate...

The piece of cloth serving as a door to the tent was raised by the hand of Jeanne who entered the infirmary. Ruler was in armor and was carrying a meal tray. Seeing that Hakuno was awake, the French girl smiled.

* * *

The Victor of the Moon emptying her cup of tea. Hakuno had just finished narrating her "dream". Thanks to her skill "True Name Discernment" Ruler already knew that Caster was Tamamo no Mae, so she did not risk betraying anything.

With her heart and soul in doubt, Hakuno Kishinami recounted what she remembered and felt.  
With her eyes lowered, the young Master contemplated the ground:

"... and I was horrified by Caster's massacre. And I was ashamed... ashamed to be horrified because Caster had always been there for me and even if I had seen what had happened to her, what right did I have to condemn her behavior?

Ruler was a calm and collected person who knew how to listen. During the long minutes of the narration, she looked at Hakuno with an attentive and compassionate look without interrupting her once. Violence, War, and the excuses that people found to do evils things... all of this was not a new subject for her to think about. Jeanne d'Arc was by nature a compassionate young woman. During the Hundred Years' War, she had repeatedly dictated letters to the regent of Bedford inviting him to leave France without shedding any more blood. But John of Lancaster Duke of Bedford was an arrogant man certain that any woman who dared to contradict him was a madwoman. And if this madwoman inflicted defeat after defeat, she could only be a witch working for the Devil.

John of Lancaster was like many other powerful men who used to see other men bow down to him and obey the least of his whims. He had become arrogant. Certain that the power he possessed came from him and not from his office, John of Lancaster had come to believe that God himself approved of his actions. Plundering the countryside, besieging a city whose lord was captive (1), or selling property not belonging to him (2) became "good" when he so decided.

But, in the end, God always punished those who used His name to do evil.

"Hakuno Kishinami, do you like Caster?"

The question startled the young Master. But she replied without even thinking, pressing her hands on her heart in a painful gesture:

"Yes, Tamamo is everything to me. My life began when I met her. I did not exist before... and it is because she devoted herself to my protection that I still live today."

Jeanne d'Arc smiles:

"Nothing your Servant did before you met her is up to you, Master Kishinami."

The teen girl put her hands on her face as if refusing to see reality in front of her:

"But... but... but could I look at Tamamo the same way? I saw her slaughter thousands of people..."

Her voice died out, Hakuno could not say more.

Ruler nodded slowly:

"Once again, what Caster did in the past is something we can no longer change. When I arrived in Chinon to meet King Charles VII, I had no idea of the trials I would face. But I was lucky that three men of war came to support me. Jean bâtard d'Orléans, comte de Dunois; Estienne de Vignolles a.k.a. "La Hire" (3); Giles de Montmorency-Laval, comte de Rais. Of these three captains, only Dunois led a life free of all tasks... except, of course, for the sins committed by all men of war. Killing is never trivial. La Hire was an Écorcheur who burned eighteen villages during a campaign. As for Gilles de Rais... Do I really need to talk about him? However, I do not judge any of them for their crimes. I am only a simple person, it is not for me to decide in the place of God whether men should be punished or forgiven for their acts. I just love those who love me and I am there for them when they need me."  
Jeanne raised a hand, warning the question of the Victor of the Moon:

'We can talk about this later. Professor Petrie-Smith asked me to send you to him as soon as you finish lunch. He looked at the remains of the Body Snatchers and I think he found something interesting."  
Hakuno straightened up without letting go of Caster's hand. She seemed to be in the grip of conflict again. After a hesitation:

"Jeanne, will you stay here and watch over Tamamo?"

"Of course, I saved her yesterday from the creatures that attacked the encampment. It's not to abandon her now."

Hakuno had a meager smile, the first since her awakening:

"Then I entrust her to you."

Resting Caster's hand well flat on the sheet, Kishinami bent down to kiss her on the forehead.

* * *

When Hakuno entered the prefabricated house inhabited by Petrie-Smith, the professor of Archaeology rose to welcome her with a big smile:

"Oh, Miss Kishinami, hello, nice to see you again. How is Caster?"

"Hello professor, Caster still hasn't woken up."

"Don't worry, it probably won't be long now."

Sitting down, he showed the chair on the other side of the table with one hand. As the teen girl took place, he gathered together some scattered papers:

"Ruler must have told you, I've examined the Body Snatchers."

As Hakuno nodded without a word, Llewelyn Petrie-Smith began to prepare his pipe with his old hands with tobacco yellow stains.

"I confess I don't understand how these entities from another world animate corpses, but the men were dead before coming here if that makes you feel any better. In any case, I recognized the old Panama full of holes that one of the undead wore. Old Ben Grim always wore it. He was a vagabond who lived in these mountains. He sometimes served as our guide. We now know why these ferocious entities attacked the mine. It remains to be seen what they intend to do with their slaves."

On lighting his pipe, Petrie-Smith drew a first puff with a dreamy air:

"There is also this attack. Don't you think this was a little strange? The aliens seemed ill-prepared as if they had improvised their assault. There is also your own testimony. One of the Body Snatchers came to your window and only then did the assault begin. You know this old saying: _Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate_."

Hakuno tilted her head:

"Sorry?"  
The archaeologist coughed out smoke:

"Oh, you don't know the 'Occam razor'? This is the oldest statement of the principle of economy or in other words: 'The hypothesis that must be considered first is always the simplest'. That's what my theory: the aliens attacked because they felt they were in danger. They attacked after they spotted **you** because they thought the danger... was **you**. After what happened in the caves, I think there is nothing extravagant about this hypothesis."

* * *

Tamamo no Mae opened her eyes to discover the fabric roof of a tent above her. The canvas vibrated and snapped to the rhythm of the wind.

"Awake?"  
She turned her head to the sound of the voice and discovered Jeanne d'Arc smiling at her while cutting apples. Leaning forward, Ruler helped her to straighten herself up, cushioning a second pillow behind the back of the kitsune so that she could sit.

Jeanne then handed her the plate and the carefully cut apple pieces, while Caster looked around her:  
"Hakuno?"  
" Your Master held your hand for most of the night... She would still be there if Professor Petrie-Smith hadn't called her. What is your last memory?"

Tamamo touched her forehead with one hand, wrinkling her eyebrows before opening big eyes:

"The cave maze... the monsters... I was defeated! What... Why am I here!? How did I get here?"

"Master Kishinami used a command mark to teleport you near her."

Caster shook her head with a conflicted look but said nothing.

Jeanne d'Arc smiles softly:

"Don't worry, using my Ruler privilege, I gave her a command mark to replace the one she used."

Caster considered the French saint with a mixture of surprise and distrust:

"Why are you helping us?"

"Isn't it normal to help others?"

Ruler's repartee left the magical foxgirl perplexed. However, before she added anything, Jeanne d'Arc leaned forward with a careful expression:

"More importantly, last night, Master Kishinami dreamed of an episode in your life, and... it really troubled her."

Tamamo startled and her ears went down:

"An episode of my life... what episode?"

"The fields of Nasu!"

The kitsune looked down, but a faint smile appeared on her lips:

"I always knew this would happen. One day, one of those dreams would make her see that... that... that I am a monster. The truth is I never had any right to serve this gentle Master of mine. She is far too good for me. It's only natural she starts to hate me. Someone like me doesn't deserve to be loved by anyone. "

Quietly, Jeanne shook her head:

"Hakuno Kishinami needs you!"

"No... No... Not me... She needs a better Servant, someone like sir Gawain, a true knight in shining armor."

With a fine white hand, Tamamo no Mae wiped some tears from her cheeks.

But Jeanne did not agree with Caster:

"You told me before that you acknowledge Hakuno Kishinami as your Master, **and choose your serve her by your own will**. and '**I'm not going with the flow of things. I choose this for myself**'. You lied?"

Tamamo had a joyless laugh:

"And I remember your answer, Ruler... something like I was 'an arrogant and self-centered Servant'... Yes, you are true. I was very foolish..."

But Ruler shook her head again:

"At this time, I was wrong. If selfishness and arrogance save someone, is selfishness and arrogance so bad? There is no absolute truth. Hakuno Kishinami was like a child just born, lost... and about to die when you appeared, Caster! You saved her, you protected her, and you guided her. You were the rock where Hakuno Kishinami clung in the storm. She said it herself: 'My life began when I became a Master. Tamamo is everything to me. 'She said it yesterday at the exit of the caves when she was worried about you... and repeated it this morning after her dream."

Tamamo no Mae had stopped feeling sorry for herself. She looked at Jeanne with bug eyes, surprised... hesitant... not daring to hope. The French saint offered her a dazzling smile:

"Do you think that what troubled Master Kishinami was the massacre of the soldiers who attacked you? It's true... partly... But she was above all saddened by what you had experienced as Mizukume. She was ashamed for all those humans who hated others just because they are different. Yes, your Master has a very tender heart. I repeat it: 'Kishinami need you!' Not a knight in shining armor! Since her awakening in the Moon Cell, you are the one who is near her. She has no father, no mother, or a big brother to protect her or teach her. But she has you, Caster. You are her family. In a family, you can argue, you can disagree. But you always reconcile, that's what a family is. All you said about choosing your destiny was just words? Are you ready to give up at the first hurdle?"

Casko remained as if turned in a statue with her mouth open, her lips forming words that she could not pronounce. Then she waved her little fists, and cried with all her might:

"I want to become my Master's wife!"

Ruler looked back at her in shock:

"Wife?"  
But Caster Tamamo wasn't listening. She was now launched at full speed and as difficult to stop as a tractor-trailer without brakes:

"I'm not only one of the most powerful monsters ofJapan's legends. Yes! I'm inside a pure maiden with a soft heart. What's wrong with a little contradiction?! Yeah!?"

She collapsed at once, suddenly out of breath, while Jeanne looked at her, blinking, completely dazzled by the sudden flight of poetry... and the vocal volume of the kitsune:

"But... but... you are both... women!"

Casko straightened up with a defiant expression on the face:

"It was not you, just now, who said that I should not let myself be stopped by the first obstacle that came?"

Ruler stared at Tamamo strangely, as wounded that one turned her own logic against her. After Astolfo dressed as a woman... this! Jeanne gathered her hands in a gesture of prayer and raised her eyes to Heaven. God must have wanted to test her.

* * *

Tamamo didn't just stop crying. She started thinking. Reasserting out loud what her goal was had reminded her of its importance.

Her Master was human...

Tamamo loved and at the same time hated humans.

She helped them and hurt them.

And the humans had attacked the kitsune, killed, and wounded her people, often without reason to do so.

But even after all these years with humans, Tamamo didn't really understand them. Their lives were short, full of suffering, and sacrifice. What pushed them forward? They were so sadly courageous that Tamamo often wanted to cry when watching their struggle.

In those moments, some humans showed a dazzling soul. Something the kitsune had never seen in immortals. It was as if humans were receiving something in exchange for the pathetic of their existence, something that the gods could neither understand nor possess. For this, Tamamo admired... and envied humans.

Then she saw Hakuno Kishinami struggling in the Moon Cell, suffering and... fighting death. Her soul was then so bright and beautiful that even the sun could not have equaled her.

* * *

Having regained her calm, Tamamo bowed to Jeanne with a politeness that the foxwoman had never shown before:

"Thank you, Ruler, I have managed to regain my original resolve."

Yes... she remembered now why she had manifested herself spontaneously, sacrificing eight of her precious tails to be able to be bound as Servant. She had instantly fallen in love... because Hakuno Kishinami was all that seduced her in humans. Her lovely Master had all that was lacking in her immortal existence, unchanged since eons. There was in this world no soul so brilliant, no heart so resolute.  
That was why even the fear of losing Hakuno was a precious emotion. Tamamo had always been jealous of humans, dreaming of obtaining for her their resolution, their brilliance, which made humans so irresistible. And... for the first time, she loved! In love, Casko had finally understood what made the souls of humans so beautiful. It was love, of course... and the fear of losing those we loved.

Casko leaped out of the infirmary bed, briefly surrounding herself with a bright light. Then she swirled about herself, dressed in her usual purple mini-kimono, magically patched and washed. Taking the pose, she waved her ears and tail:

"Mikon! Resurrection completed, Caster Tamamo no Mae is 200% more determined! Yes! There is no way I stand still for something like that. Even if Hakuno hated me, I would never give up on her. I would always be there to protect her. I would fight for her to my last breath. I would attack, I would attack, and I would attack again, neither man nor god, of this world or any other can stop me from loving her.

Without another word, even to say goodbye to Jeanne, Tamamo rushed outside, shouting something like: "Goshujin-sama I love you!"

* * *

The French saint shook her head, trying to look stern...

"You are really a selfish and arrogant Servant."

—but could not hide her amusement. Giggling, she sought to contain her hilarity by masking her mouth. Unquestionably, Tamamo no Mae had done more than her share of evil things... but at the same time, she was a surprisingly adorable and irresistibly endearing creature.

After all that Jeanne had experienced, she had understood what evil really was. Evil is the absence of love. People who didn't love were unhappy. And hatred and jealousy devoured them.

As long as Hakuno Kishinami was near Caster, the kitsune will be happy. And happy people only wanted to see others as happy as they were.

"But it's still arrogance and selfishness!"

Despite everything, Ruler could not condemn the foxgirl attitude. Tamamo was better this way... because she was herself.

* * *

Far from it, in the sunken city of R'lyeh Cthulhu dreamed and waited... A low-amplitude seismic shock rocked the South Pacific. On the island of Pohnpei, the ancient Ponape, the land closest to the epicenter of the earthquake, the glasses fell from the shelves and cracks strewn the asphalt.

Cthulhu dreamed... and had just had a nightmare. He turned, making the earth tremble again and lifting up the waters...

The Old One had dreamed that he was tied up on a gigantic spindle operated by a tiny and colorful woman with fox ears! The dream had been amazingly lifelike and the monster still felt the heat of the fire and the mocking laughter of his torturer! How could something so absurd happen to him, the Great Cthulhu!?

In his sleep, the Old One interpreted this dream as a warning. Something had changed... jeopardizing his imminent awakening!

* * *

(1) Charles Duke of Orleans was captured at the Battle of Azincourt (1415) and imprisoned in England. The fact that Jeanne appeared when the English were besieging Orleans is no accident. According to medieval war's law, one cannot attack the domain of a lord who is kept in captivity, since he cannot defend it. So it was a major violation of the rules of war of the time. Moreover, one of the main demands of La Pucelle was the release of Charles d'Orléans (already captive for 14 years, at the time).

(2) John of Lancaster Duke of Bedford sold the famous collection of books of the King of France Charles V (at the time the largest private library in Europe) as well as his sumptuous collection of tapestries. These invaluable pieces were scattered, often lost, and only a minority subsequently returned to France. And let no one speak to me of "war booty"! Paris had opened its doors to the English without a fight. From the point of view of medieval law, this excluded any possibility of plundering the city.

(3) "The angry" in old French, in fact, it is a distortion of the name of his fief of "La Hitt".

* * *

**Author's note: I hope you will have as much fun reading this new chapter as I had writing it. ****I hope I put in the right mix of humor and emotion in this chapter.****I believe the Grand Cthulhu is not ready for the "Casko 2.0" version with "200% more determination." Besides... I do not believe that the world is ready for such a monster! You should be ashamed of yourself, Jeanne... and stop laughing!**


	18. Chapter 18 The Seven Cities of Gold

**Boyzilla: Yes, I think also it's a good chapter. Poor Cthulhu, if Hakuno and Tamamo continue to make it miserable, it will found "The society for the protection of the beaten Olds Ones"**

* * *

**The Seven Cities of Gold**

* * *

Jeanne d'Arc finished rock climbing.

Around her lay, the rust-colored landscape of the Superstitions Mountains and above the sky of an infinite blue formed an astonishing contrast. The only other color, in this ungrateful landscape, was the surprisingly bright green but rare vegetation.

She had left Massacre Ground at the first light of dawn and was walking northeast in search of the Cibola site. According to Llewelyn Petrie-Smith, the creatures from another world want to excavate the city... and if they succeeded, the worst was to fear.

We had to go there and check whether the archaeologist's hypothesis was correct.

There was still a "small" problem.

Jeanne took a look at the map given to her by Petrie-Smith before their departure. She hesitated, compared the terrain around her and... Hesitated again...

After all, only the intervention of the Moon Cell made that she knew to recognize a compass and a map. At the time, the compasses were only found on ships, and they were heavy boxes containing a magnetic needle floating on oil. As for the maps... Certainly, Ruler had seen some during her lifetime but... she was perfectly illiterate and Jean d'Aulon (1), her squire, had to explain at length the maneuvers that her captains simulated with the help of these scrolls. To tell the truth, Jeanne could not imagine the terrain that these plans described. For her, it was just a mess of colors and lines.

Of course, the Moon Cell always taught the Servants the data of the modern world during their invocation. Knowing how to read had somewhat changed the facts of the problem. Only that remained a theoretical knowledge put there in her mind. It was not natural for her, any more than mathematics. Besides, if we still talked to her about sinuses, cosines, and tangents, she would start crying... She still preferred to fight Englishmen!

But... she refrained from making the face and turned to the other two members of their little expedition.

* * *

Hakuno Kishinami was uncomfortable... and uncomfortable to be uncomfortable.

A really difficult feeling to describe!

During the seven weeks spent in the Seraph, the young Master had survived only thanks to Caster's unwavering dedication.

Normally, things were clear. The Servants summoned to participate in the Holy Grail War obeyed first the Moon Cell and then only the Master who was their partner.

But Caster made a mockery of this law. She had said at her invocation that she wanted to marry Hakuno and stay with her!

This loyalty and unwavering love had even led Caster to be attacked by an Enemy_Program directly controlled by Seraph. The fact that Master Hakuno survived the erasure when she was in the Moon Cell Main Core, she still owed it to Caster who had used the wish granted by the Lunar Grail to the victorious Servant to reincarnate her in the frozen body of the true Hakuno.

NPC created by the Moon Cell to populate the Seraph, Kishinami had met Caster just after waking up to consciousness. Seeking to escape her pawn's destiny, Hakuno had entered the mortal maze of the arena. Her existence would have ended in those few minutes of pain and terror... if Caster hadn't taken pity on her.

For Hakuno, Caster was both her confidante, her bodyguard, her best friend, her wife (!), sometimes her mother, or even her daughter or sister... because Caster passed from one moment to the next from an infantile behavior to the wisdom of multi-millennial divinity. At least life with Tamamo was never boring or gloomy. That is a reproach that no one could make against her.

Hakuno simply had no family other than Kitsune. She had no one else who could serve her as a model or in whom she could have absolute confidence.

Caster was the whole universe of herMaster.

It was as simple as that.

And the Victor of the Moon was beginning to realize that this was an abnormal and stifling situation.

* * *

During the first weeks of the Grail War, Hakuno had ignored Caster's true identity. Even when she learned that she was Tamamo no Mae, Kishinami was not particularly affected. After all, whether she was the "Lady Luminous Jewel" who seduced an emperor she had never heard of in a long time gone by, or even a nine-tailed fox considered a monster, all these were legends. It meant nothing to her Master. Hakuno rubbed shoulders with the real Casko every day and the "monster" was a sweet and kind fox, funny and spontaneous. It was impossible for the Master to be afraid or to doubt her devoted Servant.

Until Hakuno had access to the memory of Tamamo and she dreamt of the massacre of the Nasu fields.

For the first time, Hakuno doubted Tamamo no Mae.

She had seen the lack of pity which her Servant had shown by facing the soldiers of the retired emperor.  
Of course, it was not entirely Tamamo's fault. She had been hunted as a pest simply because she was a kitsune.

But after her powers were revealed to her, she could have run away or paralyzed all her pursuers. She knowingly chose to kill every last one of them.

Since that dream, Hakuno felt uncomfortable every time she thought about Caster... that is to say, all the time since Tamamo remained the center of her universe.

Still, Caster's behavior had not changed... well, she seemed even nicer to her. Even though Ruler had told Tamamo that her Master had seen the massacre of the Nasu field in a dream, the Kitsune seemed to have decided not to stop calling her "Goshujin-sama" and multiply the kind words.

And it... it made Hakuno even more uncomfortable. And feeling embarrassed by a situation that she had previously considered "normal" ended up disorienting her.

* * *

Apparently, Tamamo no Mae was perfectly at ease. She walked lightly as following a thin line and twisting her ass, a way to move so openly enticing that it became ridiculous. Especially considering that she was dressed only in the "mini-skirt" version of a kimono wide open on her generous chest.  
Raising a delicate hand although ending with strong claws, Casko coughed acting superior while standing in front of Ruler:

"Ara ara, Jeanne?"

The French saint cast a distrustful look at the Servant:

"Yes?"  
"If I remember correctly the explanation that was given to us before our departure, Cibola is to the northeast, beyond the Corkscrew Canyon. Then why are we walking east?"

Jeanne d'Arc blushed brutally and turned away her gaze. Too honest to tell a lie, she held out her map and compass to Tamamo:

"I'm afraid I've lost my way. I think you should take care of guiding us, Caster."

Usually, the magical foxgirl would immediately take advantage of the situation to highlight herself. Her ears quivered with contentment and she assumed a proud air, hesitated... before appearing to deflate like a pierced balloon. Finally, she took the map handed to her with a nice smile:  
"There are many areas in which I'm not very good. But we know we can count on you, don't we, Goshujin-sama?"  
From her reflections, Hakuno looked at the two women standing in front of her. Each in its own way was a beauty capable of inspiring fiery verses to the greatest Andalusian poets. Tall and slender, her long blond hair gathered in a heavy mat, Jeanne formed a striking contrast with Tamamo smaller and more in roundness, the rattling armor of Ruler and the sword on her belt completed to give her an image of fierce strength and indomitable resilience.

Blinking, the Master looked at them one after the other. The Victor of the Moon had not listened to the conversation and Caster was obliged to inform Kishinami that she was now taking care of guiding them to Cibola.

Hakuno nodded without saying anything.

But this was nothing new, she didn't talk much, actually.

* * *

A little before eleven o'clock - according to Gideon Spilett's pocket watch- the trio arrived at the top of a cliff overlooking the desert. Nothing could be seen up to the horizon except low, rust-colored hills. Vegetation was almost absent, except for the cacti. However, this landscape was abruptly cut by a strange mist that stagnated above the ground.

Fog? In the desert? In broad daylight?

It was hard to imagine anything more absurd, especially since we guessed that this fog formed a vast arc of circle... and probably continued to form a ring all around the Superstitions Mountains. It was the Bounded Field that Llewelyn Petrie-Smith had told them about.

Opening the way, Jeanne stopped, pointing to a footpath that went down along the wall. In hand, Tamamo intervened. The cliff continued towards the west and dominated the site of interest, but the path approached it more closely. They then turned to the Master, waiting for her to decide on the path they were going to take.

After a slight hesitation, Hakuno designated the trail. The two Servants agreed and began the descent.  
The narrow footpath, all in twists and turns, proved to be a real trap. The stones rolled under the steps of Hakuno threatening to throw her into free fall. Fortunately, Tamamo was watching over her with the vigilance of a fox mom watching over the last survivor of her litter.

Finally, the dangerous path followed a wider ledge that gently sloped down towards the desert.  
According to Caster, the Cibola site would appear at the next turning point.

At the sight of the fog encircling the portion of the desert adjacent to the Superstitions Mountains, the ears of Tamamo quiver:

"Another _Bounded Field_? It looks like the one that encircles the entire region. However, I think its goal is very different. This time, it is not a question of forbidding us to leave, but rather of forbidding us to enter!"

Intrigued, Hakuno squatted next to her Servant.

From a closer look, it was obvious that the fog was not natural. He convulsed as if under the influence of the wind, yet he did not advance nor retreat. A sound like a heartbeat could be heard in the whirlwind of mist rising. And - by moment- strange lights appeared.

As they saw nothing through the curtain of mists, Hakuno, Jeanne and Tamamo concluded that they had to resume their advance.

However, while the trio had set out on the way down to the fog ring, the sound of stones falling on the narrow cornice made them raise their heads. A man was crouching on a rock overlooking the trail. He held a long knife in his hand and looked at them with a hallucinated expression:  
"Death to the strangers"

He leaps forward and...

"Iaaaa!"  
And was thrown against the wall by an upside-down kick of Tamamo as sharp as elegant! As the madman-knocked out-threatened to roll over into the void, the fox woman caught up with him. She examined for a moment his knife, an ordinary weapon, and threw it over the cliff:

"Master, what should I do with him?"

"Do you know why he attacked us?"

Tamamo laid a hand on the man and whispered a few words to focus her _Magecraft_.

After a few seconds, Caster reopens her eyes:

'His mind is a mess. I can't get anything out of it. He encountered something extremely traumatic that broke his mind... "She had an ironic smile:" Horrible creatures in the area? What a scoop!"

Behind her, Jeanne looked up to the sky. She still could not make the twisted jokes of the Kitsune.  
On the contrary, Hakuno seemed rather troubled, she was wringing her hands, her gaze going from Tamamo to the madman:

"Can you heal him?"

Caster's smile disappeared, her ears went down and she sighed... her Master was so kind, too kind in fact:  
"I'm sorry, Goshujin-sama. In theory, I could use my _Witchcraft _to "fix" his mind. But in order to do that, I would have to know what his personality was before he became insane. It would be better to entrust him to psychiatrists."

Hakuno hesitated again and then her face reflected a resolute expression:  
"Caster, put him to sleep. We'll take him with us when we go back."

* * *

Tamamo and Jeanne, who supervised Hakuno, arrived at the end of the ridge. The show was extraordinary. Ruins emerged from the ground in the midst of the activity of a few hundred men. Even an amateur historian would recognize Aztec Teocali, a kind of steps pyramid with a small temple on top of a stair.

The excavations had cleared a large perimeter, but the work had not yet reached street level. Only the summit and flanks of some temples appeared, others were still three-quarters buried.  
Jeanne agrees:

"Professor Petrie-Smith has got it right. They are trying to clear out the Seven Cities of Gold."

Tamamo had leaned over and looked closely at the individuals working. There were Body Snatchers but also apparently normal humans who worked with all the grace of remote-controlled mechanics.  
And in the midst of the slaves' labor, a fuzzy figure, a kind of pale jellyfish, floated in the air:

"Look here, a Mighty One. He seems to lead all the others."

"Tamamo?"  
Hearing the call of her Master, the Kistune turned around smiling:

"Goshujin-sama?"  
"Could you release the prisoners?"

Caster whispered a few words to focus on a spell and then smiled with confidence:

"The miners are under the control of a simple hypnosis spell. Killing the Mighty One will be enough to set them free. Nevertheless, I would advise you to wait. Attacking with only the three of us would be too dangerous. There must be many other creatures nearby."

"I agree," Ruler replied. "We are a reconnaissance group. An attack must be planned to succeed."  
As the other two girls turned to her, the saint had a poor smile: "I learn from my mistakes. A poorly planned assault can only fail (2). It is better to withdraw for now, and ask for the help of Miss Tohsaka and Professor Petrie-Smith."

While moving away, they noted the presence of the strange glowing mist. As Tamamo had supposed, it encircled the entire area of excavation. The miners had set up a railway line that linked their camp to the buried city. Oddly, the small electric train worked perfectly, as immune to the spell that prevented the technology from working.

As they watched a group of miners and Body Snatchers working, the slaves retreated under an invisible order. Just after the three MIghty Ones present joined them, a series of explosions resounded. Regardless of the ancient monuments, the monsters used site explosives!

"Well, that's not going to make our archeological friends happy." Whispered Tamamo. "They have never heard of laws on the conservation of cultural heritage? Do you think we'll get a UNESCO reward if we stop them?"

Hakuno looked up at the sky without answering.

However, as they watched the slaves return and resume their search of the ruins, one of the Mighty One turned to them. The creature held out two of its tentacles, which were joined together by an electric arc. A ball of plasma appeared at the point of conjunction of lightning, growing rapidly.  
Horrified Hakuno turned to Tamamo and uttered on the mental mode:

[Caster, Skill! ]

The fox woman leaped and interposed herself between danger and her Master. Her mirror materialized in front of her outstretched hand:

"_Mantra: Aphotic Cave_!"

The order of the Victor of the Moon had not arrived a moment too late. Caster's spell erected a sort of defensive shield capable of stopping any attack... and even absorbing the energy of it. The explosion was very violent, shattering the cliff and raining rocks of any size below.

Jeanne waved her standard with such dexterity that an ordinary human would have seen only a succession of circles of light. The boulders that fell from the cliff were sprayed one after the other and rejected from a distance... harmless to the young Master she was protecting.  
Hakuno coughed in the smoke and dust that enveloped him, the eyes red with tears caused by the irritation of his mucous membranes.

Before them, Tamamo was gasping. Most of the plasma explosion had dissipated without causing any damage. Yet her hair was smoking and one of her sleeves was reduced to a burned cloth.

Bitter, Hakuno thought that if the clash had taken place in the Seraph, she could have used a _Formal Wear_ like _Scapegoat charm_ to use the Code Cast "Gain_Con (32)" and greatly raise her servant's defense... but in the real world, there was nothing she could do to help Caster.

A second ball of plasma took off... Fortunately, the Mighty Ones were not necessarily sharpshooters. The energy projectile struck the train approaching the site...

The explosion disintegrated the locomotive and threw in all directions the cars loaded with debris extracted from the dig site. Luck really had to be on their side because the human slaves and the hideous monsters that protected the site were forced to disperse and withdraw to avoid being caught in the catastrophe.

This offered an opportunity to counter-attack. Kishinami pointed to the closest Mighty One:

[Caster, Skill! ]

Tamamo leaped, seeming to freeze above the ground. In her hands gathered above her head appeared a dark violet orb of energy.

"Aiiii!"  
Pushing her away with all his might, Casko threw the projectile against the monsters... but it was stopped by the _Bounded Field _surrounding the dig site. The curtain of mist was shaken by a powerful explosion... which he accepted without weakening!

"Caster, Ruler, we must retreat!"

Hakuno was pale, shaking her hands on her chest. The fight was impossible to win. The opponent had the advantage of number and an impregnable defensive position.

Tamamo seized Hakuno under her arms and behind her knees... and carrying her like a princess leaped from rock to rock to the top of the chaos of smoking rubbles that was all that was left of the cliff. Behind them, Jeanne d'Arc provided their coverage.

* * *

A sort of enormous wolf-man threw himself on Ruler. In spite of his claws and fangs, the creature was hardly dangerous for a Servant. Swirling her standard, she pushed him aside, striking him hard enough to stun him without killing him... the creature though primitive was visibly intelligent and Jeanne was known for her pity.

She nodded. The other opponents were still quite far away!

For her part, Caster was facing something almost impossible to describe... it looked like a cloud of ink... but eyes, ears, howling mouths appeared at moments on its surface and a cacophony of insane rubbing emanated from this thing.

Tamamo was undergoing a spiritual attack... her nightmares seemed to materialize around her. A servant could not fall into madness... fortunately! However, this was more than enough to baffle her. And, other monsters were closing in.

[Caster, Skill! ]

Shaken by Hakuno's mental call, the kitsune held out her arm. An _ofuda_ materialized in her hand. She threw him on the monster:

"_Edict of binding_!"

A strong rope made of knotted strands adorned with prayer strips appeared and bound the monster securely despite its violent jolts. This traditional spell of the _Houjoutsu_ (fight against demons) could immobilize even the most powerful creatures.

Having stopped the creatures that were catching them, Caster glanced at the nearest Mighty One. The monster leader was soon to be within range. It was time to retreat a little further.  
However, one was a cry of terror that made her turn.

The madman who had attacked them on the cliff had just thrown himself on Hakuno, trying to strangle her!

"Goshujin-sama!"  
About to rush to her beloved Master, Tamamo instinct immobilized her, her neck's hairs electrified by a huge amount of _prana_ accumulating. The Kitsune looked behind her shoulder. The Mighty One was creating another plasma ball!

If she attacks the flying jellyfish... the madman could kill Hakuno!

But if she attacked the strangler... the plasma ball would kill them both!

* * *

Ruler had fought on many battlefields. She knew that a moment of inattention could cause tragedy. Although invoked directly by the Moon Cell, Jeanne d'Arc knew the number 1 rule of any Servant: "Always protect the Master."

Further away from Hakuno than Tamamo, she heard the cry of fear and pain of the teen girl.  
Turning her head, she gauged the situation in an instant. Getting rid of some humanoid opponents, the Maid of Orleans ran as fast as she could. Striking the demented man in the head to make him let go of the young Master, she lifted him with one hand and threw him away.

While picking up Hakuno who was coughing and trying to catch her breath, she turned to the Kitsune:  
"Caster!"  
Tamamo immediately understood what was expected of her:

"_Mantra: Aphotic Cave_!"

The blue-white plasma ball rushed at Caster. Caster closed her eyes and turned her head away so as not to be blinded. A breath of destruction enveloped her... An ordinary protective shield was only a bulwark blocking an attack. But "Aphotic Cave" was more than that. It was more of a... well, let's say a siphon like the one that formed when you opened the bung of a bathtub filled with water. Aphotic cave" (as its name indicated) was stifling an attack. It also allowed Tamamo to regenerate her energy.  
Without this spell, the kitsune would never have been able to face Saver and his Noble Phantasm **Amita Amitābha**.

The plasma ball as blinding as the sun began to shrink... shrink... before disappearing. The waves of perfectly ionized fiery gas that had passed the mirror of Caster had burned the ground around her, inflicting several burning burns. However, she did not pay any attention to her wounds. She turned to Jeanne. The saint had stopped the rest of the attack with her white-light flag, protecting her adorable Master. The kitsune gave her a sigh of relief:

"Ruler, I entrust Hakuno to you!"

The young woman in armor nodded firmly, although a flash of doubt appeared in her gaze:

"Well Caster... but I forbid you to take unnecessary risks."

Casko smiles with delight:

"I have no intention of dying."

After all, Casko had a lovely husband she didn't want to make cry.

As Jeanne ran, carrying a fainted Hakuno in her arms, Caster concentrated. Avoiding the lava lake created by the plasma explosion just in front of Tamamo, a wave of hideous monsters surrounded her, cutting off her retreat. She swore:

"You are a pain in the... tail!"

But the kitsune always smiled. When they rushed to attack her, Tamamo flickered on herself, deploying a good dozen _ofuda_ who formed a ring:

"_Curse: Chaos Heaven_!"

Only one of the calligraphed papers, impregnated by the _prana_ of Tamamo no Mae, could provoke a twister capable of lifting an opponent from the ground and projecting him far away. By loading a dozen of them, she unleashed a far more powerful attack. All the monsters up to about fifty meters from her tore out of the ground... together with a spiral of lava torn from the crater. The encounter between the wind, the liquid stone, and the monsters had horrible results for the latter.

The features freeze in a grimace that showed the difficulty in controlling the cataclysm that she had triggered, the face smeared with streaks of sweat... Tamamo suddenly spread her arms. Obeying her command, the storm suddenly collapsed. Freed from the centrifugal force that made them spin around the kitsune, the monsters disappeared above the ramparts of the Corkscrew canyon.

The carnage she had just provoked had however not calmed the magical foxgirl. These monsters had tried to kill her adored Hakuno! Anyone who attacked her husband deserved death, especially the one who organized all of this. She rushed ahead, targeting the alien jellyfish who had remained cautiously back in the shelter behind the hordes of its minions.

Although Servant Tamamo had only 9% of the strength of the nine-tailed fox that she had been, she showed the Mighty One who was the most powerful. She frapped with repeated kicks to the front, then a somersault kick, following by a finishing jump kick, a series of violent moves that she called _Gyokutenho_u or _Polygamist Castration Attack_(3). The monster shone neither by its strength nor by its ability to combat contact and offered no more resistance than a sandbag in front of a heavyweight boxer. Tamamo sent the sickening jellyfish to hit a large boulder.

The monster moved only slightly, nevertheless, the kitsune was not known for the pity that she showed her enemies:

"_Curse: Fiery Heaven_!"

Fingers of fire fell from the sky whirling to wrap the wounded monster and cremated it in a terrible smell of burnt protoplasm.

Whooping by, Tamamo wiped her forehead with a trembling hand and looked around her... the landscape had been ravaged by the violent clash. Except for a few monsters that moved weakly, wounded, or dying, there was no sign of her opponents!

She smiled widely at the sight of this carnage:

"Now you know why I'm considered one of Japan's three great monsters. And you know what? I can't stand the extra-planetary competition. Besides, you have no style! Mikon! Even a lizard wearing a gothic lolita dress is more likely to become a Japan's pop idol than you are to get into the top ten of monsters."

* * *

Far from it, in the Seraph...

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOO EHHHHHHHHHHHHHH YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The concert of Elizabeth Bathory took place on a podium lit by spots of all colors and decorated with big pink hearts... and pigs (also pink). As for the voice of this "idol"... how to say? If someone had mixed the scream of rage of a dragon with the meow of a cat sprayed with cold water and recorded it in reverse on a used magnetic tape, it would have only evoked by far the abomination of what she called a song.

Be glad you didn't get the audiobook version of this fanFic, otherwise, you'd be paralyzed on the floor, drooling convulsively with bloody ears!

Sending a kiss to her audience, she contortioned herself while holding her spear... which was also a microphone:  
"So, my little pigs, are you having a good time! Are you happy to be here with me?"

The "little pigs" in question, Moon Cell Effigies armed with axes, swords, bows, and spears, were busy destroying each other... Lancer's voice having damaged their systems, plunging them into the computer equivalent of blind fury.

Apparently, Eliza was not disturbed by the comportment of the attacks programs:

"What an enthusiastic audience!"

Yes, she took the madness of the Effigies for a manifestation of enthusiasm! Well, since she was feeding on human blood and considered torture as art, her perception of things was quite... unique.  
As she was about to speak again, Elizabeth was interrupted by a violent sneeze... and then others. As she was sniffing, the hybrid of dragon and fourteen-year-old gothic lolita thought that someone somewhere had just said something very bad about her.

* * *

The Moon Cell, the supreme authority of the Seraph, had also listened to Lancer's recital. It was of course much less vulnerable to this kind of attack than a simple Enemy_Program. However, the Grail noted that the presence of this Servant caused harmful damage to the proper functioning of the Seraph. The next version of Hakuno Kishinami who would do something that the supercomputer could interpret as an invocation of a Servant, the Moon Cell would send her Elizabeth Bathory. The Victor of the Moon seemed more capable of handling this moving catastrophe than the most sophisticated computer in the universe.

* * *

(1) Jean d'Aulon (1390-1458). The squire of Jeanne d'Arc had before that been captain of the royal guard of Charles VII and adviser to the king. At the time, it was customary to appoint individuals of high status to great lords. The "household" of Jeanne (all her servants and servants) was the equivalent of that of a prince of the royal line. After Jeanne's death, Jean d'Aulon held numerous military and diplomatic posts for the king of France. He was especially the main witness of the rehabilitation trial of Joan of Arc (thanks to his two trials, Jeanne is the best-known person of the Middle Ages). All the letters "written by Jeanne d'Arc" were in fact written by Jean d'Aulon.

(2) Jeanne probably thinks of the siege of Compiègne where she was captured by the Duke of Burgundy Philippe le Bon. She had launched a counter-attack that failed. Since the siege of Compiègne ended victoriously for the Frenchman thanks to the arrival of reinforcements which forced the Burgundians to retreat, the haste of Jeanne d'Arc proved to be really badly inspired.

(3) All the poetry of Tamamo no Mae in one expression.

* * *

**Author's Note: Sorry, Boyzilla, I couldn't resist.**


	19. Chapter 19 Ubbo-Sathla

**Boyzilla: ****Some people have the peculiarity of revealing the best in case of danger or facing Elizabeth... to get rid of her some are capable of violating the rules of physics like learning to fly, or better, projecting Elizabeth far, beyond space and time to get rid of her forever.**

**Thank you for your remarks.**

* * *

**Ubbo-Sathla**

Caster joined Jeanne and just before they arrived at the base camp of the archaeologists. The three girls went together to Petrie-Smith's small prefabricated house. Tomoko Tohsaka, anxiously waiting outside, hastened to drive them to the old man's office. The latter straightened up at their entrance.  
Pointing chairs at them, he listened to the report they made of the discovery of Cibola, the presence of prisoners controlled by hypnosis by the Mighty Ones, and a veritable army of monsters.  
Most of the time, it was Tamamo who spoke. Jeanne d'Arc intervened several times to complete the story with relevant explanations and details that had escaped the Kitsune.

As for Hakuno... as usual, the master remained silent, content to acquiesce to what his friends said.

* * *

When the Servants finished talking, it was dark. Petrie-Smith turned on one of the hurricane lamps to provide some light to the dark room.

Lighting his pipe with a flame, the professor resumed the conversation:

"I took advantage of your absence to tour the communities isolated by the Mighty Ones' _Bounded Field_. At least twenty more people were abducted during the last night. Our enemies need more and more personnel to search the ruins of Cibola. These are very extensive; after all, the legend does not call it "the seven Cities of Gold"? And that's our opportunity. Whatever these creatures from another world are looking for, it's going to take them a long time to find it.

Jeanne became pensive, putting her chin on her fist:

"What are these creatures looking for?"

The answer came not from Llewelyn Petrie-Smith but from Hakuno Kishinami:

"The tablets extracted from the stars on which the gods before the creation of the world engraved their wisdom and which the Ancient One Ubbo-Sathla keeps."

It was a long sentence for the Master not used to making speeches. As Professor Petrie-Smith, Tomoko, Jeanne and Tamamo stared at her, surprised that she seemed so sure of herself, Kishinami blushed and looked away:

"Caster, Ruler, have you forgotten? I saw it when I was under the kind of helmet we found while exploring the Lost Dutchman's Mines."

Caster nodded thoughtfully:

"It's true; it was totally slipped my mind... So much has happened in the last three days!"

The kitsune's gaze betrayed a mixture of discomfort and worry:

"I should have examined you immediately afterward... instead, I ended up in the infirmary." She had a little embarrassed laugh." Mikon, I don't intend to wait any longer. Goshujin-sama, your devoted wife is not reassured that intelligence from another world has filled your adorable little head with knowledge without her consent. This can only be a trick to take you away from me! No one can resist my lovely husband and even the creatures from outer space are jealous of my chance to catch you."

Grabbing the arm of her "husband" Tamamo no Mae, undertook to pull her out of the room without worrying about her weak protests. Caster was determined to examine Hakuno without further delay.

Accustomed to the strange behavior of this strange couple... after all, humans get used to everything... neither Tomoko nor Professor Petrie-Smith reacted. As for Ruler, she forgot to be outraged... "The tablets of the gods before the creation of the world," she murmured. For an illiterate peasant, Jeanne d'Arc had an amazing knowledge of the Bible. She remembered in particular that Genesis described the creation of the world with God floating on the primordial waters. Implicitly, the Bible indicated that these "primordial waters" had existed before God's intervention.  
She looked at the door through which Hakuno had gone with Caster. She would have to talk to them about these tablets. Only her instincts told her that if these tablets came into the hands... or rather into the tentacles of the Mighty Ones, it would be the end of the world.

* * *

The discussion could resume with the return of Tamamo and Hakuno. While the Kitsune looked very satisfied, wearing a nurse outfit... miniskirt version with pink hearts marking... her Master had red cheeks and clasped her arms around her badly dressed clothes. The (very) thorough examination of Casko revealed nothing dangerous. It seemed that the strange organic helmet found in the mines had done nothing but fill her Master's brain with knowledge.

As Tomoko shook the head of consternation while massaging her forehead and Ruler frowned, Llewelyn Petrie-Smith decided to change the topic:

"While you were away, we began to think about a plan of action to neutralize the Mighty Ones before they liberated Ubbo-Sathla."

Until a late hour of the night, they debated. Finally, the plan adopted made the best use of each person's skills. Hakuno disguised to look like a Body Snatcher should wait with Caster and Ruler near Cibola. Simultaneously, at the head of the survivors of the Superstition Mountains, Petrie-Smith and Tomoko would attack the mines. Thanks to explosives from construction sites, they would collapse the Lost Dutchman's Mines, as Gideon Spilett had done in the past. The main purpose of this attack would be to serve as a diversion.

Attracted by the explosion, the Mighty Ones would leave the ruins of the Seven Cities of Gold, opening the _Bounded Field_ protecting them. Hakuno should take the opportunity to enter with the astralized Servants. This part of the plan had been difficult to get Tamamo to admit. The Servant simply refused to put her "husband" in danger. It was Hakuno who convinced her by showing her the Apache fetish she had received from Geronimo. It was their best weapon and it would only be used once. Most importantly, she was the only person who could use it. However, Hakuno had to threaten the kitsune to use one of her Command Seals to stop her protest.

Once inside Cibola, the Servants should eliminate the monsters remaining in the ruins and release the prisoners. The train would allow everyone to drive safely.

Once this is done, Petrie-Smith and Tomoko would detonate the cliff to collapse and swallow up the exhumed ruins.

This battle plan was nothing extraordinary and implied that the Mighty Ones reacted as humans imagined. However, all their other ideas were like frontal attacks or really stupid plans. They adopted it by default.

They had done their best, so they went to bed to rest before tomorrow's day... and the decisive battle.

* * *

Disguising Hakuno as a monster had amused Tomoko and Jeanne... much less Caster who pestered that one "made her so adorable husband look bad". The result was not up to the costumers of the Hollywood films, but like the rest of their plan, it was a somewhat absurd measure. For starters, we didn't know how the Mighty Ones perceived humans! At least, Tamamo assured that the Tibetan mask that her Master wore as a pendant protected her from detection by magic. But, the kitsune was uncertain as to the abilities of the aliens to detect an Astralized Servant...

Hakuno had reduced equipment: Geronimo's fetish, a stick of dynamite, and a long knife that she could hide in her sleeve. That should be enough to protect her. Finally, this and the two Servants... after having so difficult accepted her presence at the height of the battle, Tamamo declared she was ready to chain herself to her "husband" so that Hakuno would not leave her protection!

While she was getting ready, the small "army" of Petrie-Smith had listened to the last instructions of the old archaeologist.

Apart from a few guards from the mine or the camp of archaeologists who had pistols, shotguns, and a few assault rifles, the others were not combatants and could only count on makeshift weapons.

Other survivors pushed a wagon full of dynamite...

As they walked away, Hakuno shuddered. It was her turn to leave.

* * *

The two Servants were invisible, but Tamamo did not cease to intervene through their mental bond, probably to reassure Hakuno and make her presence felt. The Victor of the Moon was pleased with this attention. In fact, she was terrorized by the mission she had been given and almost blamed herself for insisting on being a part of it.

Having followed the same path, the day before, Hakuno reached the ruins well before noon.

Hidden by a pile of rubble emptied by the mining train, the young Japanese girl had the first glimpse of Cibola. The activity is much lower than during her previous stay. She discovered only two Body Snatchers striking a pickaxe in front of the still closed entrance of a building emerging from a vast crater.  
Various noises testified to intense activity, but from her observation post, Hakuno saw nothing of it. As she pondered how to cross the mist curtain still surrounding the site, Tamamo drew her attention to the train.

Advancing at a slow pace, the locomotive pulling wagons of scraps returned to empty the rubble extracted from the excavation site. Stopping near the pile that was used as a shelter for Hakuno, the driver began to unload. It was quick as each wagon had a tipping device on its side.

As the train resumed its course, Hakuno understood that she had to take advantage of this opportunity. Getting up, the teen girl began to run. Quickly climbing the slope, she reached the last mine wagon and climbed on board... just before the convoy left the curve of the railway! Luckily, the Body Snatchers on duty hadn't seen the brown-haired girl. Pressed to the bottom of the metal wagon, Kishinami was barely conscious of crossing an opening in the _Bounded Field_.

Without the need for distraction and ahead of schedule, Hakuno found herself in the ruined city... with her two still immaterial friends.

* * *

The locomotive maneuvered until it reached the siding where Hakuno had seen it the previous day. Without waiting for the arrival of the first slaves who came to load the wagons with debris extracted from the ruins, she jumped to the ground.

Between the wheels of the wagons, the Victor of the Moon saw the crowd of controlled humans digging the ground. They stopped searching the ruins and gathered around a huge hole.  
She startled when a vibration shook the ruins of the ancient city of Cibola. Stones rolled into the open funnel in the ground and... a mass of something similar to mud rose up, emerging partly to the surface.

Tamamo's spiritual "voice" resonated in Hakuno's mind:

[They found Ubbo-Sathla, it's waking up! ]

The Old One shook itself even more violently, sending slaves rolling to the ground. The disgusting shape of the huge amoeba suddenly became luminous. Then orange lightnings were born of its disgusting shape to hit the rocks or run towards the sky...

The formless and foolish god had not yet regained consciousness that its destructive nature was already manifesting itself.

The rock that imprisoned the Old One began to darken and melt!

* * *

Hakuno's heart was racing!

Everything was going too fast. Even though she had infiltrated the ruins ahead of schedule, there was no time. She had to free the slaves and evacuate them before the Ancient One woke up. Because even two Servants as powerful as Caster and Ruler had no chance against such a monster!

Hakuno Kishinami looked around her. The Mighty Ones assembled around the hole. Without instructions, the slaves had gathered apart and waited like toys abandoned by a careless child.  
It was a good thing they were all together, but going to see them would probably only serve to signal her presence to their masters.

Hakuno rose from the shadow of the train. Imitating the clumsy approach of the Body Snatchers, the Victor of the Moon crossed the empty space separating her from the slaves. Her throat was tied and a cold sweat ran down her neck. " I hope no one pays attention to me." The teenage girl mentally repeated this leitmotiv while moving forward. There were more than fifty meters... thirty... twenty...  
Suddenly, a Mighty One left the band surrounding Ubbo-Sathla, the teen girl stopped...

[Keep moving! He's heading for the slaves, not you. If you stop, you'll get attention. Walk!]

The mental appeal of Caster calmed Hakuno a little, who resumed her march... but a little too fast.

This prompted Casko to intervene once again:

[You're going too fast. Don't run, the Body Snatchers are slow and clumsy. ]

She swallowed and nodded mentally, forcing herself to calm down.

Fortunately, the Mighty One was not interested in Hakuno. Stopping near the forced workers he strangely waved its tentacles. In response to an inaudible order, the prisoners advanced as one man. Obviously, the monster was giving them orders and that did not help the teen girl:

[Caster, skill!]

The kitsune materialized in a twitching of blue particles and seized an ofuda:

"Curse: Frigid Heaven!"

An iceberg seemed to come out of the ground, imprisoning the monster. The human slaves were instantly freed from the grip of the monster from deep space. Surprised, shocked, they looked around with a confused look. Some carried the hand to their head.

Hakuno began to run and took a man by the arm to force him to walk:

"Hurry, we have to go!"

Still stunned, men reacted slowly. However, a cataclysmic explosion suddenly occurred! Petrie-Smith's diversion had just begun! The first reaction of the prisoners was to run in a panic movement... But they all stopped at the same moment. Sensing the man she held by the arm had stopped running, Kishinami turned around.

A Mighty One approached and had just taken the slaves under its terrible psychic grip. Already two of his tentacles were tending towards each other and a flash of lightning brought them together... But the monster convulsed, pierced from side to side by a sword. Standing behind it, Jeanne d'Arc had just materialized!

"Run for the train! I'm holding our pursuers back!"

Sheathed her sword, Jeanne raised her standard, which surrounded itself with white light. Having no time to worry about what the French saint was preparing, Hakuno resumed her course. The prisoners were still stunned but they followed her to the train.

As they climbed into the wagons, an intense light was born in the sky... the instant after bright strokes fell like so many arrows, striking the ground and ravaging the cursed city. Ruler once again demonstrated her power.

Unfortunately, the Maid of Orleans alone could not stop all the enemies. A Body Snatcher seized Hakuno and struck her. The teenager rolled to the ground, but before the monster could attack her again a gracious gesture from Tamamo's hand directed her mirror towards the body thief and beat it violently, throwing the monster back.

"Goshujin-sama, use the fetish"

Hakuno pulled the wand out of her clothes. She clearly remembered Geronimo's instructions. "Spread the fetish over your enemies."

Many monsters came out of the ruins, a menagerie that seemed to emerge from the delusions of a hallucinate. The rain of arrows of light had thinned their rows, but they remained too numerous for two Servants. Standing up, Caster's Master threw the wand which flew away. A normal object would have fallen back. This one turned into a wheel of fire!

* * *

Suddenly, they were there, appearing out of nowhere.

Men wore war paintings on their faces. Some were shirtless, others had armor-plates formed of flint-blades. All had loincloths, some had leggings. Their weapons were knives, spears, and stone tomahawks.  
These Apache warriors were translucent and slightly luminous!

On a loud cry, they rushed forward, full of hatred for the monsters who had forced them to wander between the world of the dead and that of the living without ever knowing rest.

The battle was immediately violent... but the Apaches were just able to contain the horde of monsters. The ghosts were not powerful enough to hope to defeat the gathering of horrors from another world.  
However, Hakuno was panting. A formidable pressure pressed her chest...she fell to her knees. Her _Magic Circuits_ seemed to howl with pain as the _prana _was torn from her body.

Her magic energy was used to feed this army, but the Master was too weak. She would never be able to provide enough _prana_!

* * *

Tamamo no Mae saw and understood instantly. Like any familiars, ghosts Apaches were fed magical energy by their summoner... and this swarm of vampires was killing her lovely husband!  
Her mirror suddenly rose above the ground, rising ever higher before turning into a small sun. An incantation came out of the kitsune lips:

_God who resides in Izumo.  
Aesthetically certain,  
Breath of the soul._

_Residing in the mountains and watery heavens, Amaterasu._  
_Let this freely become the proof of purification.  
Thy name is Weighted Stone of Tamamo.  
Become the sacred treasure, Mirror of Uka!  
Just kidding_ ~

Dozens of _toriis_ of pink light suddenly emerged from the ground around Tamamo no Mae. It was a demonstration of her Noble Phantasm: **Suiten Nikkō Amaterasu Yano Shizu-Ishi** or **Eightfold Blessings of Amaterasu on the Weight Stone under the Sunlit Watery Heavens**. Considered an anti-army Noble Phantasm, it allowed Caster to use her _Magecraft_ for a limited amount of time without spending any _Prana_.

But this power was not restricted to attack or even applied only to Caster...

Tamamo directed all this energy to Hakuno.

Her "husband" stopped panting and straightened her eyes surprised to feel suddenly relieved. The light from **Eightfold Blessings of Amaterasu** and the presence of luminous _torris_ made her understand what had happened.

As for the ghost Apaches, suddenly fed by inexhaustible energy, they rushed forward, slaughtering all the monsters who opposed them. The battle had changed in appearance. One after the other, the monstrous creatures of the Mighty Ones' army fell under ghostly weapons!

Tamamo took her Master under her arms and behind her knees:

"Let's get out!"

Caster summed up the situation. We had to leave as soon as possible!  
The _Bounded Field_ surrounding Cibola had collapsed after the massacre of its creators and the freed prisoners had left the ruins. Jeanne and Tamamo carrying her "husband" hastened to join them,  
Seeing that his allies were safe, Petrie-Smith triggered the last stage of the plan. A succession of explosions undermined the base of the cliff. An entire section of the mountain seemed to leap forward, descending on the ruins of Cibola to bury it again.

Ubbo-Sathla was briefly visible before the avalanche closed the hole dug by the slaves. It probably took a lot more to kill him, but he was a prisoner again. Let us hope that the quest for gold never again threatens to unleash this threat and that the Old Ones remains forever a prisoner of the Superstition Mountains.

* * *

The survivors were there watching the heap of red rocks and the rusty-colored swirls of sand slowly falling back.

Except for a few stones that were still bouncing, the silence had returned...

Wherever you looked, things had returned to normality. The barriers of mist, the monsters from outer space had disappeared.

Guards, mercenaries, archaeologists, miners, and vagrants looked at each other. These men who didn't mingle had been briefly reunited by the events, but already they were beginning to separate.

* * *

Hakuno rose up on her shaky legs, supported by a very doting kitsune. Emptied of her _Od_, exhausted, the Victor of the Moon still had trouble believing that everything was over.

She looked at the landslide and folded her eyes, discerning an object that reflected the light.

"Caster, what is this?"

Tamamo no Mae looked at what her Master told her without distinguishing the object.

"I'll check it out. Miss Tohsaka, would you mind taking care of my Master?"

Tomoko nodded and let the teenager put an arm around her neck. As for Caster, fast and agile as she was, it only took her two jumps to arrive in front of the object that reflected the sun's rays.

Surprisingly, the kitsune discovered a blue triangle emerging from the ground. Its surface was so polished that it reflected the light. Grabbing the piece of stone, she lifted it up...  
Tamamo no Mae's heart missed a beat when she understood what she was holding in her hand.  
A stone tablet covered with vaguely familiar writing that also appeared - paradoxically - totally foreign...  
One of the tablets containing the wisdom of the gods before the birth of the world!  
It was one of those big snugs that fate sometimes offers us.

The French miners of the CFRT, the Mighty Ones sought the forgotten knowledge of Cibola. Even Llewelyn Petrie-Smith had no other goal in coming to the Superstition Mountains.  
Only Hakuno Kishinami's group had come to protect humanity from the atrocity that could be found beneath the surface of this desert.

And it was they who discovered one of those tablets that had caused so many deaths over the centuries!  
Although diminished by the loss of eight of his tails and his invocation as a Servant, Caster felt his divine part react with the contents of the tablet... She felt the irrepressible tension of hunger to understand what was written.

Deep down the Kitsune knew that the Elders Gods had shown wisdom in refusing to keep the tablets. These writings contained knowledge too vast, too foreign for a deity of this universe to understand without being changed. In the diminished state that was her, Tamamo would inevitably be consumed.

It was not for nothing that the tablets of the gods before the birth of the world had been entrusted to Ubbo-Sathla. It was a creature powerful enough to defend them against all lust... and too stupid to understand them!

Tamamo no Mae was the opposite of the Old One. All she has to do is thinking of her cute Master to repel the temptation to seize the knowledge that has been dormant for billions of years in the tablet. This attitude made her honor... Unfortunately, when I said it was "the opposite of the Old One", I also meant that Caster was not powerful enough to defend the tablet against those who coveted it.

An arrow pierced the shoulder of the Kitsune!

* * *

Even Heroic Spirit could be taken by surprise and take a few fractions of a second to react... only in these current circumstances, it was too much!

Two more arrows hit her belly and hip.

Her mirror appeared in front of her hand. Handling her Noble Phantasm with extraordinary dexterity, Casko blocked about twenty different projectiles.

Her opponent moved very fast, constantly changing position. He wouldn't come near her and shoot her at a very long distance... from so far away that Caster didn't even see him, so to retaliate...

She had only seen such talents with the bow in the Seraph...

As she repelled another shower of arrows, Tamamo looked at one of the projectiles that had just fallen to the ground. After a few moments, it disappeared into blue _prana_ particles...

This last hint finally convinced her:

"A Servant of the Archer Class" murmured the kitsune.

She coughed then, spitting blood...

Only then did Caster feel the pain of the three arrows piercing her flesh. She was seriously wounded.  
Her eyes drifted towards Hakuno.

Her Master had her eyes widened by horror and impotence...

In the real world, her adorable Master could not resort to _Code Cast_ to protect her or an _Ether shard_ to heal her. And the Archer was too far away for Hakuno to predict his attacks and besides she was completely exhausted...

* * *

Shocked, Hakuno Kishinami turned to Jeanne in hurry:

"Please, help Caster!"

But Ruler stood still and slowly shook her head, fleeing Hakuno gaze:

"I cannot... I am the arbiter of this Grail War. I have no right to take sides in a conflict between two Servants unless one of them violates the rules of that conflict."

* * *

Coughing again, Tamamo fell to her knees. Unable to get up, she struggled to remain conscious. One of her hands twitched on her belly, feeling a hot liquid running through her fingers. The bottom of her blood-soaked kimono had turned red.

In this state, a single arrow would have been enough to eliminate Caster. Yet death did not seem to be in a hurry.

The snoring of dozens of engines was heard.

Jeeps and Dune Buggies quickly appeared, encircling the survivors. On the doors and the hoods, there were... swastikas.

In a panic, Hakuno remembered the neo-Nazis who had attacked them. She had not seen them since the day of their arrival (1). Professor Petrie-Smith called them "Werewolves".

Jumping out of the vehicles, about thirty men, dirty and hirsute, dressed in filthy clothes, pointed at them assault rifles.

The scene froze because the neo-Nazis were content to remain there, without speaking and that no one dared to move. Ruler had made her standard appear but seemed uncertain.  
This lasted until the arrival of a cloud of dust signaling a new vehicle...

Despite the situation, Hakuno goes wide-eyed.

A war-chariot like those she had seen in photos on ancient Egyptian monuments had just emerged. The vehicle, drawn by two white horses with an ornate blanket and a colored feather crest, was a Bronze Age's light chariot with several quivers on its sides.

The antic vehicle stopped and two men came down.

The first wore a white loincloth, sandals, light bronze chainmail, and a gold multi-row necklace adorned with lapis-lazuli.

His face was matte with an aquiline nose and thin lips over a false beard. He wore a blue helmet as high as a tiara and adorned on the forehead with a cobra head.

The bow, adorned with colored bands, left no doubt. Indeed, he was the Servant Archer of this Grail War.  
The second man was less impressive... but much more terrifying.

He was dressed in worn-out clothes that had probably been splendid... a long time ago. Now they were nothing but the undone remnants of a garment that had been fashionable in the nineteenth century. The man... probably Archer's Master... had his face covered with gauze strips that showed only a little skin around his eyes... Or rather what remained of his skin. The man seemed to be no more than a sort of dried-up mummy.

He bowed to Ruler with antiquated politeness. When he spoke, his voice betrayed a slight German accent:  
"Mademoiselle, it is a joy for me to meet the famous Jeanne d'Arc. Truly, the Grail War offers a unique opportunity to speak to individuals whose history has praised and whom people have revered as their protectors and greatest heroes."

The French saint bowed in return. After all, she had lived at the court of a king and knew how to be polite:  
"I thank you for your kind words, may I ask who you are?"

"Oh, excuse me, where are my manners? I am the Freiherr (2) von Ausblach."

The German lord turned to the Victor of the Moon:

"I am also pleased to meet the first Master I have just defeated... Hakuno Kishinami. The youngest of the participants in the Grail War." He laughs a squeaky and humorless sound. " An easy victory, by the way. Even if her Servant is... Tamamo no Mae!"

Hakuno bit her lips in anger. She felt completely beaten and disarmed. She had never been in such a critical situation.

Her enemy seemed to know everything about her and Caster. His arrival just at the moment of their victory over the Mighty Ones could not be a coincidence. He must have been watching them, learning their weaknesses, waiting for the right time to strike.

Clenched fists, Hakuno was thinking fast. But the teen girl was unable to find anything that could save her. Baron Ausblach had all the advantages and she had no way of retaliating.

Endgame?

* * *

(1) I am sure you had forgotten them too. Let this be a lesson to you, I always have a reason to write something.

(2) German for "baron".

* * *

**Author's note: Don't forget that "Hakuno and co" had come to the Superstition Mountains because the CFRT consortium was one of the creators of the Grail War and it had received on of the Servants of the War. So there was a chance that the CFRT Servant would be there...  
Except it's not Archer. **

**By the way, do you have any idea who this Servant is? No, it is not Ozymandias... There is more than one pharaoh of Egypt who was a great warrior.**


	20. Chapter 20 The Return of the Neterou

**The Return of the Neterou**

* * *

Silence reigned for a few moments, but in this situation, it seemed an eternity. Scared and furious, Hakuno looked at Archer, Ausblach, and Tamamo. Tamamo worried her more and more. Caster could not speak and could hardly breathe, kneeling on the sand, shaking both hands on the arrow that had passed through her belly... the wound must have been painful, and the blood continued to flow. Among the many insights that the Moon Cell had found it useful to provide to the Seraph NPC was a rudimentary knowledge of first aid. So she knew that bleeding could kill you in minutes. Hakuno had to help Tamamo very quickly... or nothing could be done.

With her hands clenched in a gesture of unconscious supplication, Hakuno Kishinami turned to the Werewolfs. The neo-Nazis looked at the scene with the arrogance of those who have weapons and know how to use them when they are faced with unarmed and terrified people. There was nothing to expect from them, these bullies were just waiting for an order to kill them all.

Jeanne d'Arc spoke. The Servant stood calmly in the front ranks of the prisoners. Her banner was slamming in the wind, sowing small flakes of light:

"What is your intention, Master of Archer?"

The baron von Ausblach made a careless gesture:

"Well, finish Caster, kill her Master and the witnesses, take the tablet of the gods and leave to continue the Holy Grail War and win it. What else?"

An expression of annoyance appeared briefly on Ruler's face. Suddenly, with the heel of her banner, she broke a rock in two:

"I would protect the innocent! Let the witnesses go, they are not concerned by the Grail War."

Ausblach was hardly impressed:

"I see. I suppose I am obliged to indulge you, mademoiselle... because knowing your legend, you will defend them with arms in hand."

Jeanne did not answer, but her resolute attitude left no doubt about what she would do, if any. The disfigured baron had a small unpleasant laugh:

"So, to make you happy, I agree to leave alive the spectators of my victory... after all, have they not just seen the greatest demonstration of talent of a Master that they will never see? Let them peddle it and make the world happy with the story of my victory and my generosity to the inferior beings."

Although they have just been insulted by being treated as "inferior beings," a whisper of relief roamed the survivors of the Superstition Mountains combats. Only Tomoko Tohsaka gnashed her teeth, but Petrie-Smith leaned over her to whisper something in her ear. She painfully calmed down...  
Ruler nodded slowly:

"I thank you for this. Nevertheless, I must also forbid you to take the tablet that Ubbo-Sathla kept."  
The eyes of Ausblach, the only visible part of his face behind his bandages, shrunk. He was furious and his vibrating voice also showed it:

"And what right do you have to deny me my loot? I was already hoping to take all the tablets, but you are denying me the only one that is within my reach."

Always calm, the French saint acquiesced:

'I was invoked by the Moon Cell for maintaining the human history and preserving the secrets of the Age of Gods. This tablet violates this second imperative."

The atmosphere seemed to cool down. Hakuno had guessed that Ausblach had waited for the defeat of Ubbo-Sathla to intervene because he could seize the tablets of the gods before the creation of the world. What he had just said confirmed this. Doubtless, that defeating Caster was only a secondary objective, some sort of icing on the cake.

Baron von Auslbach spoke again in a cool tone. At his side, Archer raised his bow.  
" You want to deprive me of my loot, the fruit of my victory?"

"If need be," replied the saint, hardly moved by the threat.

Jeanne d'Arc was now surrounded by an aura of white light and seemed ready to fight. Nevertheless, Ausblach had regained his composure and had a small laugh. In a gesture, he showed the Werewolves who always surrounded the prisoners:

"I am aware that a Ruler-class Servant can use command seals on other Servants of the Grail War. Nevertheless, I still have the advantage... you care about the innocent... don't you? I doubt these poor examples of humanity will survive if I order the Werewolfs to shoot. Even a Servant can't be fast enough to stop the bullets from dozens of assault rifles firing simultaneously."

Jeanne d'Arc was now furious but hesitated.

A voice then rose... or rather a croaking of pain:

"Jeanne... "  
The eyes turned to Tamamo no Mae who was trying to get up, holding the tablet whos was the source of the current animosity, the other hand pressed on her bloody belly.

Forgetting the situation, Hakuno wanted to rush towards her, but a neo-Nazi intercepted the teen master, violently hitting her on the ground. Immediately the pain was replaced by the anger on the face of the Kitsune, she groaned, and a trickle of blood ran down her chin.

On the ground, Hakuno began to cry:

"Tamamo, no, don't move, you aggravate your wounds."

The situation must have been really tense because Caster neglected the order of her beloved Master. She turned again to Jeanne, who looked at her with a confused mixture of feelings.

"Ruler, you owe my Master a debt," painfully explained Tamamo. "We helped you protect the people of the region and fulfill your duty. It had nothing to do with the Grail War. We had no reason to get involved. Am I right?"

The French saint was too honest to deny the evidence and she simply acquiesced. But on her beautiful face, a touch of mistrust appeared... she suspected what Caster was going to ask for.

"In that case, trade the tablet for my life and that of my Master."

Ruler shook his head... there were things more important than her sense of honor or even the lives of those present. The tablet was too dangerous. In the wrong hands, it was a tool that could trigger the end of the world.

"Jeanne..." Tamamo stopped to cough, spitting blood. "Jeanne, trust me."

Tamamo's gaze was for once very serious. We read a plea but also... yes... Jeanne trembled. Caster seemed to want to tell her something. The tablet... Caster asked to believe in her when she asked to give up the tablet to Archer's Master. As if... the tablet would be useless to them?

A multitude of emotions passed through Ruler's eyes, but she had made her decision. She turned to Ausblach who had looked at the scene with interest.

"I exchange the lives of the innocent people not concerned by the Grail War, as well as that of Caster and her Master for the tablet of the gods before the world began. Does this agreement agree with you?"  
The German baron burst out laughing:

"The life of this pitiful Master and his insignificant Servant against the secrets of the gods? Who would hesitate? I accept of course."

Ruler nod to this:

"Then we have a deal."

As Archer took the blood-soaked tablet from Tamamo's fingers, he spoke for the first time:  
"To revive the Neterou era!"

This term meant nothing to Hakuno, probably an ancient Egyptian word. However, it must have been an important clue.

Ausblach had just boarded the chariot of the king of Egypt. He finally turned to Hakuno whom he had not looked at once during the discussion with Ruler:

"Well, I look forward to seeing Miss Kishinami again... and to undoing you again, if your Servant survives her wounds, which is far from certain."

He burst out with a mocking laugh, waving to his Servant that they could leave. The Werewolfs, who had climbed back into their vehicles, followed the war chariot, raising large clouds of sand in the American desert.

* * *

Cyberspace was a virtual space created by a series of supercomputers, copying the technology implemented by Moon Cell to create the Seraph. Virtual forums of associations, online games site, banks, and administrations had all their extensions in the _Reality Marbles_ created by the photonic crystal computers managing this strange universe.

The gigantic labyrinth consisted mainly of sort of corridors and rooms with translucent walls, floors, and ceilings. Outside these passageways, voyageur of the cyber universe could only see an ocean of binary numbers where traveled strange objects of various shapes that were in fact the materialization of data packet exchanges between computers.

In a bag-end corridor, a whirlpool of violet computer particles and photonic crystals gave birth to three silhouettes.

Supported by Jeanne d'Arc, Tamamo no Mae was barely conscious. Caster had to be taken as quickly as possible to the base of archaeologists... hoping that she would survive until then because the only hope of saving the Servant was to bring her into cyberspace. Fortunately, with the destruction of the _Bounded Field_ raised by the Mighty Ones, the archeologists' means of communication were working again.  
Hakuno Kishinami wore back the brown uniform of the Tsukumihara academy, closed around the neck by a blue ribbon. Her avatar in cyberspace was actually the one she used in the Seraph's grail War. Seeing the glassy eyes of her Servant and her livid complexion, she held back tears. This did not prevent her from taking a small device out of one of his pockets. The _Portable Terminal_ was both a communication device, a sort of G.P.S., and... an inventory. The stored objects were accessible by a simple menu. Hakuno only needs to select the desired object from this menu and...

In the hand of the Victor of the Moon appeared a large crystal. A _Pure_ _Ether_, a mysterious crystalline substance that completely restores a Servant's HP.

Hakuno focused on Tamamo while squeezing the crystal and the object was diluted into data particles that surrounded the wounded Servant. In an instant, it was a miracle. The wounds disappeared as if they had never existed, even the clothes were repaired. Life returns to Casko's gaze... and with life, her habitual behavior. Escaping Ruler, she threw herself on her Master to hug her effusively:

"Nyaaa, Goshujin-sama! Thank you a lot, your humble bride is fully healed!"

A little embarrassed, Kishinami smiled... as for Jeanne, she turned away her eyes, the cheeks as red as an apple. But after a few minutes, as Caster continued to purr, curled up against her Master... without thinking about the situation, Ruler gathered her courage and faced the outrageous duo:

"Tamamo, why did you want me to leave them the tablet of the gods?! You must be well aware of the danger it represents?"

Without ceasing to purr, the Kitsune opened an eye to look at the saint:

"Jeanne, the survival of my Master was at stake. It was the only leverage we had."  
Hakuno's reaction was hardly enthusiastic:

"But we left him a very dangerous object, I feel responsible. To save me, you may have put the world in danger."

Ruler nodded strongly, supporting the teen girl.

Tamamo was not particularly impressed by the vehemence of her "husband":

"Master, when you take a long journey, you climb one hill after another and you don't worry about the next one before descending from the one you have climbed. If I hadn't traded our lives for the tablet, we wouldn't have the opportunity to worry about anything else afterward."

Hakuno Kishinami looked thoughtful for a moment and then approved vigorously. After all, despite their defeat, they were alive. So they could still fix things.  
Nevertheless, Jeanne d'Arc seemed particularly stubborn today:

"But this does not prevent Baron von Ausblach to have one of the tablets of the gods. The knowledge they contain..."

"He can't do anything with it." Cut off Casko.

As Jeanne stared at her with surprise, the Kitsune spread her arms with a smile:

"When I held the tablet in my hands, I felt my divine part answer... but very faintly. The Heroic Spirits invoked by the Moon Cell Automaton are stripped of most of their divine heritage. The Servants participating in the Grail Wars are... " She had a grin that was both mocking and painful "... series-built versions of the Heroes of the past. As such, their capabilities are degraded. Whoever Archer is, even if he has a divine legacy, he won't be able to use the tablet. After all, I was forced to sacrifice all but one of my tails to become the Servant of my beloved Master."

As she turned to her Master again, obviously in search of a reward, Hakuno smiled and reached out to caress Tamamo between the two ears. The Kitsune closes her eyes of contentment and restarts to purr to her heart's content.

Ruler sighed. Tamamo no Mae was... a monster. She was fiercely selfish and didn't care what could happen to the rest of the world as long as she didn't suffer from it. However, when Jeanne saw her like this, she was unable to resent Caster. Did Hakuno Kishinami realize that she could ask her Servant to destroy this world and that Tamamo would only ask in exchange to be fondled between the ears?! It would have been scary if Hakuno were not so innocent and so kind. The meeting of these two was one of the greatest miracles.

"But the baron must have known that only a god can use the tablet. So he has a plan and..." the saint paused for a moment as evidence struck her. "He wants to use the wish of the victor of the Grail War to..." She frowned without finishing because she did not really know what Ausblach was looking for.

But Tamamo agreed:

"And my husband will defeat him. Once again, she will remain the last Master."

Caster had just said this as if it was really obvious and Ruler shook her head, puzzled by her assurance:

"He beat you, how can you be so sure to win next time you meet?"

The remark did not detract from Kitsune's enthusiasm:

"Each time we lost the first fight against an opposing Servant during the Moon Cell Grail War... But we ended up triumphing over all our opponents."

Ruler turned to Hakuno with a somewhat panicked expression, but the Master merely nodded to confirmed it.

* * *

" _Code Cast: hack_"

Hakuno had just reached out to the wall. For a _Spiritron Hacker_, the entire Cyberspace was just a playground. The wireframe structure of the corridor seemed to fluctuate and screens appeared on the surface of the translucent wall.

The serious face, the Victor of the Moon concentrated. Images appeared... horse-drawn chariots... they were bas-reliefs drawn from inscriptions in Egyptian temples or tombs. Hakuno was looking for a war-chariot similar to Archer's. At the same time, she went through archaeological journals, theories on the history of the war chariots.

The first of these war machines had appeared in the hands of the Hurrians, de jure enemy of the Sumerians. The latter had then copied it. This technology had then spread during the Bronze Age, arriving in Egypt around - 1660, at the time of the invasion of the Hyksos. When the Hyksos were driven out, the pharaoh Ahmose (1552-1527) founded the 18th dynasty this was the beginning of the period know as the New Kingdom.

The Egyptian war chariot was probably used from that time until the last true Egyptian dynasty, the 25th one, and the conquest of the Nile valley by the king of the Persian Cambyses. Nevertheless, this war machine continued to be depicted on the wall of temples built up to the Ptolemaic era.

Archer could be any pharaoh - with the exception of Hatshepsut who was a woman- between the 18th and 25th dynasty... i.e. for nearly a thousand years!

Hakuno began to think. Had she noticed anything else important in Archer's clothing and armament?

* * *

A few steps behind, Tamamo turned to Jeanne, she sounds needy and possessive:

"Hakuno is a genius tactician. My sooooooo cute Master keeps the slightest detail and then researches to discover the secret identity of the Servant she faces. It is as if her adversaries taught her all she needs to beat them."

Hands on cheeks, the kitsune covered her "husband" with kind eyes:

"Look, look... she's so cute when she's so focused."

But Ruler shook her head, she had just removed her headband to rub her temples... Caster's excessive enthusiasm gave her a headache.

* * *

Unconscious of Tamamo's antic, Hakuno focused on her memories of the encounter with Baron Ausblach. Ah yes... Archer wore a conical blue helmet as high as a tiara with a cobra head on his forehead. Once again, she searched for images on different historical sites devoted to ancient Egypt. The iconography was incredibly rich and she recognized this helmet on several wall frescoes, some of which showed the pharaoh on a war chariot.

This confirmed that both had been used simultaneously and therefore that she had not ventured on a wild goose chase.

The oldest representation of the helmet showed it worn by Ramses II (also known as Ozymandias) at the Battle of Kadesh, but its use seemed to have remained until Pharaoh Psamtik III, the last pharaoh of an Egyptian dynasty, deposed by Cambyses.

This covered a period from - 1290 to - 525... More than seven centuries and 56 pharaohs (1)!  
As for the term "Neterou" ("Neter", in the singular), it meant... "gods" in the Egyptian language.  
Kishinami frowned.

So, Archer wanted to restore the Age of the Gods! No wonder the Moon Cell Automaton sends a Ruler-Class Servant. Such a wish would put an end to the Human Order...

* * *

Ruler seemed worried when Hakuno summed up the results of her research. She shook her head, appalled:  
"Restore the era of the gods? Are you sure?"

Hakuno nodded strongly:

"That's what Archer said: 'Restore the Neterou era'. The Egyptian gods..."

Jeanne always seemed to have doubts, but the Master insisted:

"That's what he said when he took the tablet of the gods from Tamamo's hands."

Caster understood that Ruler still doubted:

"Jeanne, if my Master was so clever that she had planned in advance the attack of an Egyptian servant and invented all this, don't you think that she wouldn't have started by telling me? You have just spent several days in our company, you must have understood that my husband is too honest to lie, too kind to let me be hurt... and especially too naive for such manipulation."

But Jeanne d'Arc still did not seem determined to believe them and Caster allowed a little anger to pass:  
"You can't doubt any longer! You said it yourself your duty is to maintain the human history and preserving the secrets of the Age of Gods. And the tablet of Ubbo-Sathla endangers both! If Archer is the victorious Servant of this war, he will use his wish to bring back the Egyptian gods and give them the tablet. Can you imagine the disaster? So tell us who Archer is?"

One of the gifts given to the Rulers by the Grail is the class skill _True Name Discernment_. During a direct encounter, a Servant's true name and entire status information will be automatically revealed to Jeanne d'Arc.

After a last hesitation, the saint ended up speaking:

"Ramses III"

* * *

Far less known than Ozymandias, Ramses III had been a great pharaoh... in fact, the last pharaoh of the New Empire to have had an important role. His successors will experience a long decline. Subsequently, Assyrians, Persians, and then Macedonians will dominate the kingdom of the Nile, before the Romans end its history.

As Hakuno read the story of Ramses III, she understood why the Servant Archer desired the return of the Age of the Gods. Even as he had the ambitions of a great king, Ramses III was crowned in the midst of the surrounding political chaos of the Late Bronze Age collapse. The Paleo-climatologists explain that the Middle East experienced at this time a phase of acceleration of the desertification begun at prehistory. Outside Egypt, the Hittites, Nineveh, and Babylon collapsed. The people driven away by the disaster that ravaged the regions set out for the Nile and Egypt was beset by foreign invaders. Domestically, Egypt experienced increasing economic difficulties and internal strife which would eventually lead to the collapse of the Twentieth Dynasty.

The heavy cost of these battles slowly exhausted Egypt's treasury and contributed to the gradual decline of the Egyptian Empire.

But these difficult realities are completely ignored in Ramses' official monuments, many of which seek to emulate those of his famous predecessor, Ramses II, and which present an image of continuity and stability. Despite economic difficulties, Ramses III marked his faith in the gods of Egypt in building important additions to the temples at Luxor and Karnak, and his funerary temple and administrative complex at Medinet-Habu is among the largest and best-preserved in Egypt; however, the uncertainty of Ramesses' times is apparent from the massive fortifications which were built to enclose the latter. No temple in the heart of Egypt prior to Ramesses' reign had ever needed to be protected in such a manner.

But the end of Ramsses III life was not peaceful. It was the consequence of a plot against his life, a result of a royal harem conspiracy during a celebration at Medinet Habu. The conspiracy was instigated by one of his wives over whose son would inherit the throne.

The conspirators used sorcery to end the days of the old pharaoh, but this maneuver failed. The plotters were captured, tried, and were robbed and their names erased to prevent them from enjoying an afterlife.

The plot failed, but Ramses III was still assassinated, having his throat cut by an axe under unclear circumstances.

* * *

Hakuno nodded slowly. Like all Servants, Archer had received the necessary knowledge to know the current world from the Moon Cell. And what did he find out? A world plagued by an ecological disaster and a collapse of civilization identical to the one it had experienced during its lifetime.  
Worse ancient Egypt had disappeared and the temples of the gods were abandoned.  
No wonder such a believing man wants to save the world by using his wish to return their ancient power to the idols abandoned in the desert sand. But it was also a selfish desire which counted for nothing the desires of the people now living on Earth.

While the Master reading the biographies of the pharaoh available in cyberspace, Tamamo and Jeanne had discussed at length Archer's characteristics and skills. But as the Victor of the Moon approached to join the conversation, the voice of Professor Petrie-Smith rose from her _Portable Terminal_:  
"Hakuno, can you hear me?"

"Yes, Professor, I hear you..."

There was a pose, and then the voice of the old man sounded a little less anxious:

"Ah, it seems incredible to me that your mind is in the cyberworld while your unconscious body rests on the sofa... " He changed the subject: "Do you know a man named Sezuku Minamoto?"

Of course, she remembered him...

"Yes, I know him; he's Tomoko's ex-husband. He's a police officer."

"He came and not alone, he wants to talk to you."

Hakuno almost asked the old archaeologist to repeat. Inspector Minamoto belonged to the Tokyo police what was he doing here? And especially who were those who accompanied him?  
As she asked the question, Llewelyn Petrie-Smith answered quickly:

"Army helicopters landed with journalists and scientists. Apparently, the _Bounded Field_ raised by the Mighty Ones was visible from space. And since the region was cut off from everything for three days and four nights, this has raised many questions. That's all we talk about on every TV channel."

* * *

Quite uncomfortable, Hakuno was sitting on an iron chair in a plastic bungalow that had been dropped off a few hours earlier by a helicopter. Through a small window, she could see the comings and goings of military trucks bringing more and more soldiers into the Superstitions Mountains.

[Calm down, Goshujin-sama, your devoted wife is near you. I will not let anyone examine you as a strange animal. ]

As soon as they returned to the real world, the Kistsune had taken her astral form to remain near, invisible. Knowing that Tamamo was close to her was indeed a great comfort to Hakuno. Nevertheless, the Victor of the Moon startled when hearing the door open.

Two men entered, greeted by the guard at the gate.

The first was a man in his forties who she did not know. He wore a desert camouflaged fatigue and a gun to his belt. Given the insignia on his chest and shoulder pads, he must have been an officer. The second...  
"Detective Minamoto! Why are you here?"

The policeman had the chin covered by a five o'clock shadow and feverish eyes. He smiled as the teenager stood up and raised his hands with an amusing gesture of defense:

"A lot has happened Hakuno-chan... Where to start? It's all because of what happened here and in the Badlands..."

Hakuno made a head tilt:

"The Badlands?"

The army officer forgot to breathe for a moment. More accustomed to this tic of the young Japanese, Sezuku Minamoto forgot what he wanted to say anyway:

"Uh... oh, yeah, why am I here? Well, I didn't have a choice... I couldn't stay in Japan anymore. Not after Kimata took power in a coup."

Hakuno blinked:

"Because of what happened here and in the Badlands? But what is the Badlands?"  
The officer coughed in his fist and stretched out his arm so Hakuno can shake his hand:

"I'm Colonel Cooper of the US Army. Just after the Kimata coup, two Servants clashed in an area called Badland, bordering South Dakota and Nebraska. Apparently, the French corporation CFRT was conducting secrets researches in these states. They had pierced a very deep tunnel and brought something back... but we don't know what. Because an unknown Servant arrived and attempted to destroy everything, another Servant intervened to stop him. Miss Kishinami, we need your help. Our weapons are useless..."

Amazed to hear of the Grail War as a known fact, Hakuno turned to Minamoto. The detective shrugged his shoulders:

"I explained everything to my superiors... I'm talking about my superiors in the resistance, including Colonel Cooper. But anyway, we can't hide what's going on. Not when an army of the undead is raised by one Servant to fight another... Humanity woke up yesterday morning with images of the Badlands fighting filmed by mobile phones and broadcast throughout the cyberworld."

* * *

**Author's Note: ****Difficult episode for Ruler... do you think she's gonna have a nervous breakdown? ****As you probably understood, we are leaving the Superstitions Mountains. In the next episode, we will discover... the Badlands. New events, a new playground, and a new Servant...**

* * *

(1) Excluding usurpers, not counted in the official lists.


	21. Chapter 21 The Blood's Winter

**Boyzilla: ****Supreme Commander Kishinami? Or, "special weapon Head tilts Kishinami"? I have no trouble imagining Hakuno at the head of an army. Except that's not exactly what I have in mind.**

* * *

**Author's note: I did not imagine writing such a long chapter for "Music of the Spheres"... but arrived at the Christmas festivities, the chapter was so short that I preferred to continue... and after cutting in the middle of a transition chapter which explains the context of this new Arc will be awkward.**

**As I reread myself, I realized that a passage is not very clear, the plane (you will understand what I am talking about when you read this chapter) disappears on Monday, December 21, Hakuno is invited to spend Christmas at Senator Weikmann's house five days later... so the Christmas scene is on December 26 (not the evening of the 24th). It is not a mistake of the author (I can still add, thank God). As stated in the text, Senator Weikmann cancelled the Christmas festivities when he learned of his son's disappearance. When Weikmann discovers that the mysterious Master that Cooper sends him is a 16-year-old girl, he decides to celebrate Christmas at the time of her arrival.**

* * *

**The Blood's Winter**

* * *

The State of Maine is a country renowned for its harsh climate. No foreigner took pleasure in staying there after the beginning of autumn. The Christmas period was undoubtedly warm in the heart of the inhabitants, but more difficult for an epidermis not accustomed to a temperature far below zero.  
The taxi turned into a street invaded by the year-end decorations. The families were shopping and we could hear _the First Noel _of Sinatra broadcast by loudspeakers.

As the car entered the facade alignments, Tamamo wiggled on the back seat:

"I think I found the Weikmann house."

An outstretched hand, the fox-girl... so far devoid of her tail and ears... showed a gathering of journalists. A television crew filmed a young blonde presenter warmly dressed, microphone in hand. Further away photographers take pictures of a large traditional wooden building, with blue tiles, a veranda, and many windows surrounded by white shutters.

The Master replied with a simple nod of the head. The young Japanese girl was not the talkative type. The vehicle entered the driveway, beating off the reporters with a horn. Some of them took pictures of the trio who got out of the taxi. It must be said that two of them had enough to attract the flashes of the photographers. One did not often see someone as pretty as this blonde teenager with long hair tied in a heavy braid, or this equally beautiful Asian with generous breasts... one quickly forgot the second Japanese, thin and small. No one knew who they were but their arrival at this very moment was probably no accident and one could hear the speculations of the presenter.

Then the front door opened to let out Stephan Weikmann, a Democratic senator from Maine, and his son Pier Weikmann, a doctor of quantum electronics and chemistry.

Both men were tall, robust, with heavy features, clear eyes, and baldness which to be more advanced in the father is no less present in the son. Their faces were a mask of anxiety and sadness.  
Turning a deaf ear to the television host requesting an interview, Senator Weikmann turned to Hakuno:

"Miss Kishinami, thank you for coming so quickly."

Unsure, the young Master shook his hand and nodded without saying a word.

The senator raised an eyebrow, was a little surprised by her behavior, and then turned to the two young women who accompanied the Victor of the Moon:

"Excuse me, I'll get you inside. There is no reason to stay out in the cold and with all these vultures gathering around my house."

The politician guided them inward. When they had passed through the front door, he said:

"Believe that your help to all is appreciated. Especially you Miss Kishinami, my friend Professor Petrie-Smith has told me a lot about you. Despite the situation, I am happy to finally meet you."

Hakuno could only answer with a new nod. She was obviously very uncomfortable and the honorable senator's attempts to get her to speak did not seem to be effective. Tamamo no Mae shook her head with a mixture of fun and fatalism:

" My adorable Master is very shy and your welcome may be a bit excessive."

"Excessive?" emphasized Weikmann Jr., "your Master has been selected by the Moon Cell Automaton to participate in the Kimata Grail War. In view of recent events, this 'Grail War' could degenerate into a real world war. I don't see anything excessive in behaving according to the stakes."

With her stomach's in knots, Hakuno finally spoke and asked him in a small voice if that was the reason for her presence. The senator made a gesture of denial and smiled sadly:

"No, Miss Kishinami, I want your help in a difficult trial."

Tamamo frowned, surprised. She looked to Hakuno, who also seemed surprised before turning to Jeanne. The French saint remained impassive, and if the senator's remark surprised her, she showed nothing.  
The Weikmans noted their trouble, without understanding the reason. Leaving the hall, the senator guided his guests to a salon to introduce them to the other members of the family. Worried, they were gathered around the television, with their eyes turned to the station which was broadcasting a report on the crash of a passenger plane. The images are shot on the shores of Sakakawea Lake in North Dakota.

Tamamo heard the commentator call the owner of the plane "Kurt Weikmann", it was not difficult to understand that it was a relative of Senator Weikmann:

"That's what you were talking about... a difficult trial... yes I understand better."

Stephan Weikmann replied by twisting his hands in anguish:

"My son... he... he came with his daughter Christina to spend the Christmas holidays... here in Maine. His wife..."

"His ex-wife, Dad."

Yes... yes Pier, I forget all the time that they are divorced. His wife... his ex-wife, Eleni, had just arrived. We were waiting for them to land...it was Monday night. We had prepared a big Christmas party and decorated the house. Instead, we're here waiting for a sign of life."

Jeanne d'Arc nodded with a thoughtful look:

"You said a plane crash? You know what happened?"

The honorable senator looked at the TV with continued to embroider on the same facts:

"No, nothing. We canceled the festivities while the police and army were mobilizing significant air and ground assets. We were confident that they talked about research devices, but now that it's about recovery..." He stopped without finishing the sentence and shook his head in a gesture of denial. "Five days! For them it's too much, they've removed all the research planes."

Pier Weikmann nodded heavily:

"I'd like you to help us find the plane..."

Tamamo had restrained herself until then, but she was getting fed up. She raised an elegant hand and coughed with an affected look:

"Ufu ufu ufu all this is very sad, I grant you. I don't want to be insensitive. But what does that have to do with us? Colonel Cooper sent us here to help the army against a Servant. My Master is not a specialist in plane disappearances! And you already seem to have all the help you need." Casko, in a gesture, pointed to the TV that continued to show images of the rescue." Then why are we here?"

There was a moment of hesitation before Dr. Pier Weikmann spoke again:

"Excuse us, we started from the principle that you were aware, this has been on the front page of the newspapers for several days..."

"We were trapped in a _Bounded Field_ who interrupting communications", cut off Tamamo.

Hakuno blinked and laid a hand on that of her Servant:

"Caster, that's not very nice. Let Dr. Weikmann talk."

Tamamo made fun of Weikmann, but as she was scolded by her Master, her expression instantly changed into a contrite look would have been fun in other circumstances. A slight smile appeared on the senator's lips:

"Let me explain. Colonel Cooper did bring you here so you could assist the army blocking the Sakakawea Lake area..."

* * *

Senator Weikmann embarked on a long explanation, but Hakuno did not understand half of it. The politician mentioned a series of organizations whose names were acronyms or a soup of initials. Fortunately, Tamamo did not seem to have any trouble following these explanations. Nevertheless, sitting on one of the sofas surrounding the television, the Servant did not hide her irritation. With her arms folded, in a posture that could hardly be described as open, the fox-woman did not seem particularly willing to cooperate. When the politician interrupted, she spoke:

"So, if I can summarize, your younger son is part of a commission to verify that companies operating on American soil do not illegally export weapons or other prohibited technologies. He was investigating the links between the CFRT consortium, Kimata Inc, and a Middle Eastern tyrant when his plane went missing. And the next day, in the same region, two Servants clashed. I'm right?"

Pier Weikmann, the elder brother, replied:

"Yes, that's it... Caster. Petrie-Smith explained to us that Kimata and CFRT invoked Servants and we assume it was one of them that caused the plane's crash. But if the method remains incomprehensible to us, the motive is clear. My brother came back with the result of his investigation. Kimata or CFRT intercepted the plane to shut him up. We would like you to help us find the plane... it is not possible that they are dead, not possible."

Sitting on the other side of Hakuno, Jeanne rested her cup of tea and turned to the senator:

"As the arbiter of the Grail War, it is my duty to ensure that innocent people are not involved in the conflict. However, if you want us to help you, we need a little more information."

Senator Weikmann agreed:

"Ask us what you want to know."

"You said your son came here to spend Christmas with you."

"This is it."

"Where did your son come from?"

"Hightwater, in Saskatchewan... in the south of Canada, on the border with the U.S. Kurt had just completed a survey of shale-gas operations owned by CRFT Consortium in Canada.", replied Pier Weikmann quickly, ahead of his father who gave him an irritated look.

Although not very comfortable with other human beings, Hakuno had a knack for feeling insignificant details. Since their arrival, the father and the son exchanged angered glares that were also seen in their posture... There was a discomfort between them, like a disagreement.

For a Servant like Ruler, Senator Weikmann's frustration must have been equally obvious. Yet she remained imperturbable, continuing to ask her questions:

"How did you know the plane had fallen into Sakakawea Lake?"

"An Indian from the Fort Berthold reserve saw it fall. An emergency buoy with the aircraft's registration and one of Christina's suitcases were recovered floating on the lake. In fact, air traffic control lost contact just north of the Indian reserve and the distress beacon was picked up by the New Town tribal police, the city closest to the lake."

* * *

Examining herself in the mirror of the wardrobe, Hakuno Kishinami fastened the fastening of his _cheongsam_ dress (1) on his left shoulder. Having finished dressing, the survivor of the Moon looked critically at herself.

Her physical appearance had not changed since the Moon Cell Grail War, she still looked like a skinny teen girl and devoid of... well... despite her sixteen years she was still deprived of all assets that could attract the boys' eyes. Moreover, her face was not expressive, as if she was doomed to be some kind of background character that nobody noticed. Only her long milk chocolate hair and her huge eyes of the same shade stand out of the ordinary.

As every time she rediscovered herself in the mirror, Hakuno hoped to have gained in beauty, to be able to compare herself to Rin Tohsaka or Rani VIII, but she had neither the class of the first nor the exoticism of the second.

Hakuno had a poor smile, she would have to give herself a reason.

The teen Master startled as we knocked on the door. Before she could even respond, the gate opened to let in the tornado Tamamo no Mae.

The Servant jumped and flung her arms around Hakuno's neck:

"My super-upper-ultra-cutie Goshujin-sama! Your humble wife is more and more and more in love with you."

Hakuno sighed, somewhat annoyed by Casko's behavior. Nevertheless, she caressed her between the two ears:

"You could wait until I told you to come in, you could have surprised me while I was still getting dressed."  
"Yes, I miscalculated. I thought it would have taken you longer to put on that dress!" Confessed the kitsune with disarming frankness.

Hold a minute... had Tamamo really admitted that she had entered to surprise her while dressing? Hakuno blushed, trying to repel Caster... a vain attempt doomed to failure.

"Caster!"  
"Nya?"

In the mirror, Hakuno's gaze met Tamamo eyes... the magical foxgirl pulled her tongue with a half-provocative, half-amused look before winking at her... and Hakuno sighed shaking her head. She could not stay angry with Casko... whatever the Servant did, she ended up forgiving!

Of course, Tamamo no Mae felt the emotional change of her Master. And as Hakuno renounced to get angry, not at all intimidated, the Servant resumed her "offensive":

"I was right to make you buy this dress at the airport. It fits you like a glove. You look really handsome! "

The teen girl blushes. It would be more accurate to say that the Chinese dress fitted her as closely as a glove, revealing her assets... or rather the lack of them. In fact, her dress was a typical modern blue _cheongsam_ with gold printed patterns and the shameless high-slit cuts reaching the top of the thigh. The slightest step revealed her legs and stockings.

She should never have let Caster convince her to buy such an indecent dress. But the Servant had insisted so much and Hakuno was so weak when Tamamo adopted an imploring look. It must be said that the kitsune mastered the art of the "sad cocker".

While Tamamo continues to create compliments that did not exist in any dictionary that her Master did not even listen to anymore, Hakuno looked again at her reflection in the big mirror of the dressing.

She didn't think she was prettier than the first time.

But Tamamo no Mae smiled at the teen girl and tied something in her hair.

With surprise, the Master carried her hand over his ear to discover in the mirror that she now wore a shimmering pearl clip carved in the shape of an orchid.

The kitsune smiles:

"Merry Christmas Goshujin-sama, now you are perfect."

Hakuno had a little confused smile... at least someone thought she was pretty. She felt embarrassed and... grateful.

Too moved to speak, the teen girl caressed Caster between the ears. This - once again - caused the Servant to lose the little self-control she possessed on a resounding "Goshujin-sama!", the fox woman threw herself on her Master to hug her vigorously against her opulent chest, almost suffocating the teen girl...

On the point of losing consciousness, Hakuno wondered for a moment if the Servant she had the most to fear was not Tamamo...

Fortunately, a retainer knocked on the door to inform them that dinner was served. The man of a certain age, impeccable in his white jacket and bow-tie, must have seen some very strange things in a lifetime serving the great families of the East Coast, for he raised only an eyebrow at the sight of a purring woman with ears and a fox's tail squeezing a turning purple teenage girl who struggled weakly (2).

* * *

Senator Weikmann was waiting for his guests in a large dining room with white pine-paneled walls decorated with prints that seemed to have been executed by Norman Rockwell. Most of the family members were present.

Very master of himself, the politician greeted Tamamo and Hakuno with grace, complimenting their toilet and bowing even for a hand kiss operated in the rules of art.

"Ah! Miss Kishinami, please accept my son's apology... he will not supper... these last few days have been very painful for him."

"I understand perfectly, senator."

Stephan Weikmann smiled and invited Hakuno to take a seat. The table was sumptuous, a delicate porcelain and crystal glasses surrounded baskets and a bottle of golden wine. In one corner was the traditional Christmas tree and the room was decorated with Christmas wreaths.

Hakuno sat next to Jeanne who smiled at her:

"Merry Christmas!"

The French saint barely listened to the Master who answered. Ruler radiated enthusiasm:

"It has been 2099 years since Christ incarnated and his birth is still being celebrated. You are celebrating Christmas in Japan?"

Hakuno makes a head tilt. Reflecting on the question, she did not realize that all members of the Weikmann family were holding their breath.

"I think so," she ends up answering.

This surprised Jeanne:

"You are not sure?"

"It's my first Christmas."

Confused, Jeanne opened wide eyes... then she remembered who Caster's Master was. Despite appearances, Hakuno was not a sixteen-year-old. She was an A.I. created, certainly, nearly sixty years earlier... But "dormant" since the end of the Lunar Grail War, Kishinami had been awakened by the Moon Cell to participate in the Kimata Grail War.

Jeanne hesitated for a moment and then raised her champagne glass:  
"May this first Christmas leaves you unforgettable memories."

* * *

Hakuno looked around with an impression of discomfort that did not reflect her impassive face.  
Of course, she knew that the feathered Indians no longer rode on the infinite plains. Buffalo Bill put an end to all this by having all the bison slaughtered along the railway lines. This "feat" succeeded in reducing to poverty a proud people.

The military helicopter that picked them up at the Washburn Municipal Airport landed in Autier, near Sakakawea Lake, a small village that appeared to have been hit by a cyclone. Opening the door, Hakuno placed the headphones on the back of the chair before turning to her three companions. Doctor Weikmann seemed disgusted, unlike Jeanne d'Arc and Tamamo, who showed no emotion.

Yet the shantytown was a spectacle of desolation. All the prefabricated houses were crumbling, the ravaged walls were covered with graffiti. Beer cans, broken wine bottles, food packaging, and baby diapers, formed a pile of rubbish covered by the snow fallen at dawn. This filth looked more like a mockery of civilization, a cry for help, than real pollution.

"Beautiful atmosphere," ironized the scientist, "don't you think they're a little careless in this town?"

The arrival of the helicopter had not gone unnoticed. Out of all the barracks came a lot of people who crowded on the waste ground where the newcomers had landed. Like an animated window whose current would have been cut off, the Indians remained motionless, literally fascinated by this otherworld sight suddenly appeared in their daily misery. While the pilot was helping the passengers to unload their belongings, Dr. Weikmann met police officers who had just arrived from two old patrol cars. Readjusting his sunglasses, the colossus who directed them moved towards the crowd to speak in a grave and slow language with nasal sounds. His authority seemed to work because his brothers of race retreated.

"I'm Sheriff Garreaux, who are you, and what are you doing here?"

With a smile worthy of a used car salesman, the Senator's son hurried forward and grabbed a hand that was abandoned to him in bad grace:

"Excuse my unorthodox arrival, my name is Pier Weikmann. You've been made aware of my visit, I think."  
"_Oh-han, kola_" greeting the Indian. "I was waiting for you"

Leaving his men to watch over the helicopter, he invited the passengers to follow him.

* * *

Hal Garreaux was a 40-year-old Native American. Despite his round face and prominent belly, he inspired certain prudence, perhaps because he was nearly two meters hight and there is little doubt that his musculature was developed in proportion. In addition, three poorly patched scars scratched his face from the forehead to the jaw, cutting off the eyebrows, skipping the brow arch, and eventually clawing his cheek.

Once in his office, the sheriff hung his Stetson on the coat hangers and put down his rifle:  
"Doctor Weickmann," said the policeman, "you are just in time. One of our recovery teams has located a metal object in the lake. We think it could be your brother's plane."

Without a word his interlocutor nodded his head, the eyes half-closed in a visible effort to control his anxiety. Absolutely not concerned about the torment of the scientist, Tamamo sat down on the edge of the desk and began to investigate the scattered files:

"Wow! Terrific... how did you do it? It's the story of the needle in the haystack."

Sheriff Garreaux made a conspicuous effort not to become angry at the unencumbered nature of the kitsune:  
"A needle that magnetizes! A boat with a magnetometer went right over it. We were lucky. We could have passed by twenty times without finding anything. Frogmen placed cables on the wreckage."

Slowly, the scientist rose up. His eyelids beat as if he were coming out of a dream:

"Tell me, sheriff, would it be possible to accompany you when the plane will be out of the water?"

"Dr. Weikmann, not only is it possible but it is even necessary... If we find corpses, we will have to identify them."

"Then let's go now."

Hal Garreaux makes a grim while mechanically touching the golden crest of his badge:

"Too much enthusiasm can harm. A group of F.B.I. agents and some lab guys must come before us."  
"Okay," Jeanne said, "what if you tell us what happened?"

"On Monday, December 21, Jimmy Eagle Elk, a fisherman living near Autier, heard an engine roar. A large shadow passed over him, hiding the stars. It was supposed to be 8:30. When the shadow moved away, Jimmy noticed the position lights and realized it was an airplane. Slipping quickly over the water, it disappeared in the night. At 8:35 p.m., the distress beacon on Dr. Weikmann's brother's plane activated. By 6:40 p.m. it had disappeared from radar and was no longer responding to calls from the control tower. From Jimmy's testimony, we were able to define a search perimeter."

Jeanne d'Arc remained pensive for a few moments, then she looked into the eyes of the sheriff:  
"Can we trust the testimony of Jimmy Eagle Elk?"

His eyes lowered, the Amerindian seemed to shrivel, his shoulders arched. After a few moments of silence, he replied in a broken voice:

"This land is cursed! Children are conceived without love between two shots of alcohol. They are often born with disabilities. Dwarves, morons, abnormals, blind and deaf are ten times more numerous on reserves than in the rest of the country. It is alcohol and despair that is at the origin of evil. Here reigns "the Blood's Winter" as Lakota writer James Welch said, total despair that turns into sexual violence and violence. And then what? Pure and simple genocide?"

Shocked by his words, Hakuno stood up and shook her hands:

"No one is doing anything? Should the Indian Office not protect the natives?"

Garreaux stared intensely at Hakuno and laughed with a bitter irony:

"Don't you think it's doing enough?"

The Victor of the Moon remained speechless, without knowing what to answer. The silence was soon broken by the melody of Garreaux's mobile phone. As soon as the phone hung up, the sheriff smiled at Dr. Weikmann and explained that he was expected.

Before the Amerindian reached the door, Hakuno called him. The colossus turned around:  
"Miss Kishinami?"

"What did you mean about the office's responsibility?"

Hal Garreaux remained meditative for a few moments then sighed:

"To cure themselves of their guilt for having driven us from our land, the whites pay us a subsistence allowance. That money wiped out the last remnants of the autonomous economy that survived World War IV. We used to be in misery. Now the Sioux; the Chippewas; the Mandans; the Hidatsas; the Arikawas and so many others have become welfare zombies."

Crossing the threshold, the sheriff showed with his hand the village of Augier and its prefabricated buildings in ruins, the broken windows, heir missing tiles:

"In the reserves, children suffer from such a lack of affection on the part of their parents that joy and trust are vain words for them. Mistreated or abandoned but always filled with reproaches, they are compared to burdens. They eventually develop a sense of inferiority and guilt where their own lives often count much less than a night of drunkenness."

Sitting behind the wheel of the Indian police pick-up truck, he started. Weikmann, who was locking himself in the nearby seat, leaned towards him:

"I sincerely find the situation very regrettable, but I rather care about my brother. Who can we rely on?"  
"Nobody! Life matters so little here, so how do you motivate someone for research?"

Leaving the village, the pick-up rolled slowly amid abandoned crops. The road was littered with rusty car carcasses and the road signs were riddled with bullet holes. Only the virginity of the snow broke with the immutable feeling of depression that stuck to the landscape. The end of the oil age had led to the same flood of disasters as in Arizona.

Not far from Augier, Sakakawea Lake sparkled under the sun. A human anthill had settled on the shore. Soldiers, policemen, and rescuers had dispersed on both water and land. Several motionless boats danced at the end of their anchorage chains, passing the relay to a tow truck that pulled out a mud-covered plane, reduced to scraps by the violence of the impact.

As soon as he arrived on the beach, Sheriff Garreaux led Hakuno, Weikmann, and the Servants to a group of men with parkas who were contemplating the wreckage. The redhead with the nosy face who was leading had eyes that were never at rest watching everything and everyone. Lymphatic in contrast, the Hispanic just behind him simply stared at the plane with his teeth chattering.

"Dr. Weikmann, allow me to introduce O'Sullivan and Gomez from the FBI."

Striking the sheriff with his gaze, the redhaired man took out a wallet and unfolded it with a dry gesture, making appear an official card stamped with the American eagle and a golden badge:

"_Agent_ O'Sullivan, Geronimo, and this is _Agent_ Gomez!" corrected the FBI man.

"Hugh, great Sioux chief apologize but Geronimo is Apache chief."

Without answering, the federal agent looked through the strange group that followed the Native American. In brief words, O'Sullivan recounted the discovery of two corpses and asked for their identification by Dr. Weikmann. Putting his steps in those of the agent, the latter disappeared among the tents of the camp. Tamamo accompanied him, as well as Garreaux. Nevertheless, wishing to prevent Jeanne and the Master from having to contemplate bodies, they were asked to stay there.

Noticing that Hakuno trembled with cold, Gomez approached her and handed her a steaming cup:  
"Madre de Dios, don't just stand there, you'll freeze on your feet!"

But Kishinami shook her head without saying a word. Despite the numbness and coldness of the wind, which was like pins that were pressed into all exposed parts of her skin, she preferred to stay there. The Master swallowed a sip of the boiling liquid that the Americans called "coffee" and failed to strangle... too sweet... Placing the cup on the hood of a car, Hakuno spoke:

"How long have you been here?"

The Hispanic smiled:

"Quien sabe? I'm too afraid to roll up my sleeve to watch the time, my skin could freeze."

However, the conversation ended with the arrival of an overexcited Tamamo:

"Dr. Weikmann didn't recognize the bodies!"

Hakuno blinked and the kitsune explained more clearly:

"Weikmann did not recognize his brother among the bodies extracted from the wreck. According to Canadian authorities, he was on board with his little daughter when he took off. As they were tracked by radar to the north of the reserve, this means they landed nearby before taking off again."

* * *

In front of four slow, silent riders, behind, another held by the loins a convoy of five horses loaded with bundles wrapped in tarpaulins. The runway was only a draft winding between coniferous trees covered in frost lace carved by the wind. Brush and low branches scraped the boots of the riders at the passage.

Around Hakuno no one spoke, only the condensation of the breaths prevented the travelers from being taken for ghosts.

The landscape and the people around the Teen Girl were cinematic clichés. The Indians were on the warpath. Yet it was not a film, but a reality that spread out in the majesty of a breathtaking setting. The change of scenery was total. The numbness caused by the cold reinforced Kishinami's sense of unreality.

Less than three hours earlier, the small expedition had abandoned the solar-powered pick-ups for horses that had a much better range, especially here where the roads had not been maintained for at least forty years. In addition to Sheriff Garreaux, Dr. Weikmann, Caster, and Ruler three Lakota Tribal Police officers completed the group: Pete Two Legs, Raymond Little Eagle, and Jeremiah Coutrelle.  
Raising her head, Hakuno looked at Hal Garreaux immersed in the study of traces on the ground and the surrounding landscape. During the travel, he explained the methods of the Indian trackers. In its current outcome, it is a mnemonic process called NDAH, where "N" means number, "D" direction, "A" age, "H" heel. It was enough to count the traces going by pair. If they succeeded each other in an uninterrupted track, identify the heel prints visible in the space of a stride and divide it in half to be aware of the number of individuals who had passed there. To know the direction, we needed a compass and a map. The age of the runway was more difficult to determine, Hakuno had just understood that knowledge of the latest weather events was crucial since the footprints kept track of them. The depth of the heel print gave valuable indications of the weight of an individual and the material it carried and its speed. All these were the signs on the ground. The aerial signs were the broken branches and the tiny fragments of tissue hanging from the bushes.

During the march, the man from the group that closed the column had approached the Victor of the Moon to the point of walking almost at the height of the Teen Girl. He could not move forward anymore because the pack horses handicapped his maneuver. Hakuno turned slightly sideways to observe him. The Lakota Sioux was an impressive individual, warmly dressed, with a Stetson. If the Master was looking at him, he too seemed to be staring at her although his sunglasses prevent her from being sure. One other than Hakuno would probably have spoken, asking the reason for this interest but Kishinami did not speak much and the Victor of the Moon remained silent. Next to her, Tamamo had also noted this interest and directed a scary glare at the Amerindian... in her mind everyone wanted to steal her "adorable Master" and she intended to defend her "property".

At a bend of the path, the small expedition arrived in a gently sloping, asymmetrical clearing, extending at the foot of a sort of giant pipe furnace, one of this singular clay mountains whose westerns popularized the image all over the planet. As snowflakes began to dance in the final day, the sheriff set foot on the ground, and distributed orders for tents to be erected.  
Under the snow that was now falling, everyone was busy. The packs' horses were unloaded, the heavy canvases laid down on the ground, and fuel oil barrels were installed, roughly shaped and drilled, for use as a stove.

Exhausted by this trip that made her lower back mush, Hakuno was finally able to rest and disengage while the meal was cooking and the kettles were singing on the stove full of pine logs.

* * *

When you ride a horse you certainly don't expect to be more tired than the horse the next day! But Hakuno was not in the habit of making such hikes, nor of sleeping amid the snoring and coyotes howling in the gusts.

As Hakuno complained to Tamamo, Hal Garreaux set out with a vast burst of laughter. Furious the Kitsune insulted the sheriff for the greater amusement of the other Sioux busy devouring a solid breakfast of bacon and eggs, red beans, and dried meat while drinking a bubbling coffee closer to infusion than espresso.

Vexed, Tamamo turned her heels dragging her "adored Master" by the wrist. Freed from their presence, the police began to dismantle the camp by throwing amused eyes at them. Not understanding the Sioux language, Hakuno could not understand what they were saying but it was obvious that they were laughing at them.

On his way to her horse, Hakuno set foot in the stirrup and mounted the saddle. The others were busy rebuilding the convoy of the day before. Less than ten minutes later they were gone. Following the steep chalk cliffs lined with coal strips, they entered a landscape of meadows sleeping under the snow, from which mesetas and rocks in equilibrium, similar to castles, sprang up. In this immaculate white panorama, only the green of the coniferous groves brought a touch of color. The horses toiled. Even without their shackles, the hooves slipped and sometimes a horse would whine in pain, wounded on pieces of ice. Stoic, the men endured the cold that condensed their breath into frost, clinging to their nostrils. They had to wrap themselves in thick parkas, wearing several layers of disparate clothing, to avoid freezing on their feet. The weapons brandished, the watchful eyes behind the sunglasses, the Stetsons weighed down with a snow wreath, the tribal police offered an anachronistic show. The inspection of the isolated farms that the sheriff deemed suitable for landing an aircraft continued throughout the morning, with no results.

* * *

At the instigation of Dr. Weikmann, they left the forest to follow a roughly arranged road to a house with a pink plaster, with a roof of asphalted cardboard. The reception reserved for them made the comparison with the external cold rather favorable to the latter.

A child sucking his thumb and trembling with all his bones was nestled in a leather chair draped with an Indian blanket. Behind him, an adipose woman soaked in whiskey without giving visitors a look. On a disembodied sofa lay a tall old man, thin to frighten. His fingers yellowed by the tobacco twitched over a flattened cig which he wore constantly to his toothless mouth. The waxy-dyed skin of the face strongly outlined high cheekbones. The hair was white, long, and vaporous like a halo. Incredibly wrinkled, he must have been a hundred years old.

Red Cloud is the _Wica a Wakan_, the most famous "medicine-man" of the Lakota Sioux tribe.  
Weikmann had been chatting with him for some time through an Indian interpreter with lumpy skin, his eyes disappearing behind ray-bans, a scarf holding back his long black hair. The translator punctuated the former's speeches with shaving to a can of Budweiser or aggressive movements of his 98 k rifle.

The atmosphere was unhealthy, tense, as when approaching a storm. An old drunk sitting in an armchair surrounded by bottles stubbornly stared at Hakuno as if the Victor of the Moon came out of one of his drunkard's nightmares. Television - which no one was really watching - was on at full power, spilling a foul stream of game shows and commercials.

Smoking cigarettes on cigarettes, Red Cloud answered Dr Weikmann's questions with harsh remarks: "Why would I be willing to help you save your brother when our children are dying because of you white people? Why would we help our persecutors? Did you respect the treaty of Laramie that kept us our territory from Missouri to Montana? Did you even respect the one in 1868 that stole half of it from us? No, on the contrary, the gold diggers stole the territory of the Black Hills and you put us in reserves like animals in zoos. When Sitting Bull tried to get us out, you murdered him with three hundred women and children in Wounded knee."

Pier Weikmann was careful not to defend him from expressing himself and waited until the end of the tirade to place a few words:

"I'm sorry about what's happening to your people, but I can't help it."

"That's pretty much what your president said when I went to see him in Chicago (3). I asked him to give us back our lands so that our people could smile again. Instead, look around you! Look at how we live! Children start drinking at school, then they don't find work, they don't have enough to eat. Why doesn't anyone help us? You white men came to our lands and you took them, you took our food. And in exchange, you raped our women, killed our children, and destroyed Mother Earth. You smoked the sacred pipe with us, you signed agreements. They were not respected because you are too greedy. Why should I help you?"

"My brother is innocent. He did not kill any Indians. He did not violate a treaty... his daughter is only fifteen years old."

"And aren't the children here innocent?"

"Sure."  
"So worry about them and I'll worry about white kids."

"I am sincere".

"I don't know what that word means when it's in a white man's mouth."

With an angry gesture, the old Sioux crushed his cigarette butt in an overflowing ashtray. Shaking his hands against each other, Hakuno swept the filthy piece with a nervous look before taking a step forward:  
"Hello... I am Hakuno Kishinami. Allow me to speak in your presence."  
"Done!"  
Hakuno, who had absolutely not prepared her intervention, stopped to gather her courage while the old medicine-man searched through his Player package without letting her out of his sight.

"I am not white. If I promise to come and help your people, will you believe me?"

"How would I know if white poison isn't in your heart? Many of my people turned away from _Tunkasila_, from the spirits of our fathers, tormented by the desires that the whites waved before their eyes."

Pulling Hakuno by the shoulder the sheriff passed in front of her, beginning a long conversation in Sioux with "the medicine-man". After several minutes the interpreter translated a question that the old Indian addressed to the Master:

"Why do you, who are not of the white race, help them?"

Kishinami hesitated for a moment and chose honesty:

"You saw it on TV, they talked about two monsters fighting each other. The disappearance of Dr. Weikmann's brother is linked to this story. I'm here to fight these monsters."

It was a very long speech for Hakuno. In fact, she had rarely said more at one time. Only, it did not affect the old Indian:

"There is nothing to expect from whites, they have corrupted the red man, they have made him renounce peace. Everywhere in every country, on every continent, their greed has strangled Mother Earth, weakened minds. Look around you, this world is dying because of their greed and the monsters you speak of are the punishment of our plunderers."

The response provoked an angry movement at Tamamo no Mae:

"You say it was the whites who turned you into violent drunkards, either... but you also gave up."

The translator turned white and pointed his rifle at the kitsune. He would probably have fired without a dry order from the old one.

"I do religious ceremonies in which young people participate. I make them undergo the ritual of solemn vows of renunciation of alcohol... but these remain drunkards' vows. What else can I do?"  
"Open a detox center."

"The funds for its construction have been squandered in bars, casinos, and personal investments. If you give every day a block of bison to a great eagle, it will no longer hunt and be a great eagle... only a beggar. When the white man has cut down the last tree to make paper money, when the white man has polluted the last river, he will realize that money cannot be eaten. Leave, you are not welcome!"

* * *

(1) This Shanghainese outfit functions mostly as a stylish party dress. This is a dress popularized by the celebrities, socialites, and politicians of the time in Shanghai from the 1920s to the 1940s.

(2) The big question: Is Hakuno Tamamoproof?

(3) Washington was destroyed by a nuclear warhead during the Fourth World War, in 2099 the capital of the USA is Chicago.


End file.
